Kalshi | Crypto

According to reports, Kalshi plans to launch crypto perpetual futures, expanding beyond prediction markets as regulated derivatives offerings in the US continue to evolve. Prediction market exchange Kalshi is reportedly preparing to expand into cryptocurrency trading by introducing perpetual futures contracts, marking a major shift beyond its core event-based derivatives business. In a Tuesday report, The Information cited people familiar with the matter as saying Kalshi plans to offer perpetual futures — commonly known as “perps” — on cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC). Perpetual futures are a type of derivative contract that allows traders to speculate on price movements without an expiration date.  Read more

Prediction market platform Kalshi is moving onto Coinbase’s turf by launching crypto perpetual futures, aiming to capture the massive demand for digital asset derivatives within a regulated U.S. framework.

CEO Tarek Mansour said in an interview that Kalshi would prevent kids from using a parent’s ID to skirt its age restrictions by launching a parent portal and AI verification. Kalshi co-founder and CEO Tarek Mansour reportedly announced a new strategy for the prediction markets platform to crack down on minors illegally using its services. According to a Wednesday Semafor report, Mansour said that Kalshi was launching a “portal for parents” to submit their identification to check whether their children were using the platforms under their names. There have been incidents in which minors have been able to bypass Kalshi’s age requirements — a US-based user must be 18 years old — by using one of their parent’s IDs for verification. “We are also adding selfies to accounts, where you can basically look at the face of a person, and it can tell you obviously if this person is not the actual parent that’s 50 years old,” said Mansour, according to Semafor. Read more

A federal judge in Arizona has temporarily barred state officials from enforcing gambling laws against Kalshi, siding with the CFTC. A federal judge in Arizona has temporarily barred state officials from enforcing gambling laws against Kalshi, siding with US regulators in a growing dispute over how event-based trading products should be classified. In an order issued on Friday, Judge Michael Liburdi of the US District Court for the District of Arizona granted a request from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the federal government to halt any state-level action targeting contracts listed on CFTC-regulated markets . The ruling centers on whether Kalshi’s “event contracts” fall under federal derivatives law or state gambling statutes. Last month, Arizona authorities sought to pursue enforcement against Kalshi under local gambling rules, but the CFTC asked a court order on Wednesday to stop the action. Read more

Judge Michael Liburdi ordered Arizona not to bring any enforcement actions under state law against Kalshi, at least temporarily.

As Kalshi captures a dominant 89% of the market, a high-stakes legal battle between federal regulators and individual states will determine if these platforms are treated as sophisticated financial tools or just another form of gambling.

The US Justice Department and commodities regulator asked a federal court to block Arizona’s action against Kalshi, arguing federally regulated event contracts fall under CFTC jurisdiction. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) and Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) asked a federal court to block Arizona from enforcing state gambling law against Kalshi’s event contracts, arguing that they fall under the CFTC’s exclusive authority over swaps markets. The Wednesday filing argues that event contracts listed on federally regulated platforms such as Kalshi are swaps under the Commodity Exchange Act and therefore fall within the CFTC’s exclusive jurisdiction. The filing says Arizona’s enforcement effort unlawfully intrudes on the CFTC’s exclusive jurisdiction over federally regulated event-contract markets. Read more

As states seek to regulate prediction markets, a panel of federal judges ruled in favor of Kalshi’s position that only the CFTC has jurisdiction. A US appellate court has ruled against New Jersey gaming authorities for bringing an enforcement action against prediction market platform Kalshi over sports event contracts.  In a Monday-issued opinion, a panel of judges in the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled 2-1 in favor of Kalshi’s argument that the company had a ”reasonable chance of success” claiming that the Commodity Exchange Act preempted state law, setting the stage for a potential battle over gaming laws in the US Supreme Court. "This is a big win for the industry and millions of users," Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour said in a social media post on X. Read more

The judge said Kalshi’s event contracts are indistinguishable from sports betting, supporting the state’s position that the platform requires a gaming license. A Nevada judge has reportedly extended a ban preventing Kalshi from offering event-based contracts in the state, ruling that the products constitute unlicensed gambling under state law. Judge Jason Woodbury said at a hearing in Carson City on Friday that he will grant a preliminary injunction requested by the Nevada Gaming Control Board, barring the company from allowing residents to trade on outcomes such as sports, elections and entertainment events without a gaming license, according to Reuters. The decision extends a temporary restraining order issued on March 20, which will remain in effect through April 17 while the court finalizes longer-term restrictions. Read more

Stephanie Cutter will join the prediction markets company as a policy adviser, having previously worked in Democratic lawmakers’ campaigns. Predictions market platform Kalshi announced that a former staffer of US President Barack Obama had joined the company as a policy adviser. In a Thursday notice, Kalshi said Stephanie Cutter would join the prediction markets company from Precision Strategies, a communications firm she co-founded in 2013. Kalshi said the addition of Cutter came as the company planned to “deepen its relationships in DC and across the country.” According to Kalshi co-founder and CEO Tarek Mansour, Cutter’s experience allowed her to “get [the] message to the right people,” highlighting her background in government and politics. The predictions market already has staff with ties to the US government, including the appointment of the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., as a strategic adviser in January 2025, the week before his father took office. Read more

The Washington attorney general became the latest state authority to sue Kalshi, alleging on Friday that the prediction markets operator violated state regulations. Kalshi is facing another state-level lawsuit after the state of Washington on Friday filed allegations that the prediction market operator violated state gambling laws with its products. The Washington Attorney General’s complaint cites the Pacific Northwest state’s existing ban on online gambling and otherwise strict oversight of the gaming market, in claiming Kalshi violated the Washington Consumer Protection Act, Gambling Act, and Recovery of Money Lost at Gambling Act. "Kalshi’s website and app show consumers a range of events that they can bet on and the odds for those various events, which dictate how much the bettor will be paid out if the event occurs," an announcement from Attorney General Nick Brown said. "This is exactly how sportsbooks and other gambling operations function. Kalshi advertises that they allow consumers to 'bet on anythi...

The Washington state attorney general alleged Kalshi offers "gambling products" products dressed up as prediction markets in a lawsuit Friday.

Kalshi has already listed specific markets that ARK Invest is interested in, such as non-farm payroll markets and deficit-to-GDP (gross domestic product) ratio markets. Tech-focused asset manager ARK Invest said it will start using Kalshi’s prediction market data to improve how it makes its investment decisions, one of the latest cases demonstrating the broader value of prediction market data beyond trading. According to a statement from Kalshi, ARK will use prediction market data to gauge real-time expectations and guide its existing market-based research, in addition to analyzing performance indicators such as trading volume, regulatory approvals and technological milestones. ARK will also use the data for risk management and hedging strategies. “Bringing prediction markets into institutional workflows is a natural next step for innovation in financial research,” ARK Invest founder and CEO Cathie Wood said Thursday, while the company’s research director, Nick Grous, said prediction markets “offer some of th...

A Nevada state judge has sided with local authorities to ban Kalshi’s sports, election and entertainment event contracts in the state for 14 days. A Nevada judge has temporarily blocked Kalshi from operating in the state, finding that state authorities are reasonably likely to prevail in a legal fight over whether the company’s event contracts violate Nevada gambling laws. Carson City District Court Judge Jason Woodbury issued a temporary restraining order on Friday, siding with a Nevada Gaming Control Board motion to block Kalshi from operating in the state for 14 days. "Prediction markets, to ​the extent they facilitate unlicensed gambling, are illegal in Nevada, and we have a statutory duty to protect the public," Nevada Gaming Control Board Chair Mike Dreitzer said in a statement to Reuters. Read more

A Nevada court issued a 14-day ban on a wide range of contracts from prediction market firm Kalshi as the firm continues battling with state regulators.

US gaming lawyer Daniel Wallach says a Nevada state court-issued restraining order against Kalshi appears imminent, preventing it from offering sports-related contracts. A federal appeals court has cleared Nevada state authorities to enforce a temporary restraining order against Kalshi, blocking its sports-event contracts. The Ninth Circuit Appeals Court on Thursday denied Kalshi’s emergency request to stay a lower court proceeding, meaning the case returns to federal court and allows Nevada regulators to take action. Gaming lawyer Daniel Wallach said a temporary restraining order (TRO) against Kalshi now appears imminent, and added that it wouldn’t be able to operate in Nevada for at least 14 days until a preliminary injunction hearing is held: Read more

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied a legal effort by Kalshi to stave off an expected temporary restraining order from the state of Nevada.

The prediction markets co-founder said that the company would “abide by court decisions“ but signaled that the charges were based partly on political bias and media attention. Tarek Mansour, co-founder and CEO of prediction markets platform Kalshi, has pushed back against criminal charges filed by Arizona authorities this week, claiming that they were a "total overstep" and "not about gambling.” On Tuesday, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced charges against the companies behind Kalshi, alleging that the company operated an “illegal gambling business in Arizona without a license” and offered illegal election wagering. Mansour said in a Wednesday Bloomberg interview that Mayes was attempting to “subvert the judicial process” by filing charges without a court decision in Kalshi’s own lawsuit against Arizona authorities last week.  “We see this as a total overstep and we look forward to fighting it in court,” said Mansour. Read more

Arizona has filed 20 criminal counts against Kalshi, a prediction market platform, accusing it of operating an illegal gambling business and offering election wagering in the state.

A Kalshi spokesperson said that the criminal case was based on ”paper-thin arguments” and claimed the company was exclusively under federal jurisdiction. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced that her office filed gambling and related criminal charges against the companies behind prediction markets platform Kalshi. In a Tuesday notice, Mayes said that the charges alleged that Kalshi operated an “illegal gambling business in Arizona without a license” and offered election wagering, in violation of state laws. Arizona authorities alleged that Kalshi’s prediction markets platform allowed state residents to bet on event contracts related to sports and state and federal elections.  “Kalshi may brand itself as a ‘prediction market,’ but what it's actually doing is running an illegal gambling operation and taking bets on Arizona elections, both of which violate Arizona law,” said Mayes. “No company gets to decide for itself which laws to follow.” Read more