A MrBeast video editor has been fired after accusations of insider trading by Kalshi
ByJAMES POLLARD Associated Press
NEW YORK — Beast Industries fired a MrBeast video editor this week following accusations of insider trading by the prediction market operator Kalshi.
Kalshi announced last month that a user who traded about $4,000 on streaming markets related to MrBeast videos with “near-perfect” success turned out to be an employee of Beast Industries who “likely had access to material non-public information.” Kalshi suspended the editor from its platform for two years, fined him $20,000 and alerted federal regulators.
A spokesperson for Beast Industries, founded by Jimmy Donaldson, said the roughly 500-person company has “no tolerance for this behavior” and has initiated an independent investigation. Jeff Housenbold, the company’s president and CEO, told CNBC that he’d taken action several months ago to bar trading by MrBeast employees and contestants for Beast Games, Donaldson’s popular Amazon Prime reality-competition show.
The incident places YouTube’s biggest channel, which rose to fame with Donaldson’s stunt-based challenges often involving large cash giveaways, in the middle of debates over whether prediction markets are a form of gambling and how they are regulated. Kalshi is one