Prediction market Kalshi becomes a major rival to Polymarket

Kalshi, a prediction market platform, has raised a $185 million investment round, pushing its valuation to $2 billion.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the raise was led by crypto-focused investment firm Paradigm, with additional participation from Sequoia Capital, Multicoin Capital, and other venture capitalists.

Kalshi co-founder and CEO Tarek Mansour confirmed that the money will be spent on expanding the company’s technology team and connecting its markets to additional brokerages. The Kalshi contracts are currently available on Robinhood Markets and Webull platforms, and are expected to be available on more retail platforms.

I’m excited to announce our $185M Series C valuing Kalshi at $2B.

The round was led by Paradigm with participation from Sequoia, Multicoin, Peng Zhao, Neo, and Bond Capital.

People choose to work at Kalshi not because of the money we’ve raised, but because of our ambition:… pic.twitter.com/OGgZSwOPvj

— Tarek Mansour (@mansourtarek_) June 25, 2025

In its statement, the firm noted, “In the past year alone, the platform has increased volume by 100x, users by 10x, active markets by 5x — all while securing multiple important licenses and legal victories, including a historic victory in federal court that enabled Americans to trade on the outcome of elections for the first time in over 100 years.” 

Launched in 2018 by Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara, Kalshi had already secured $156 million, including its 2021 Series A, $30 million, and short-term loans last year. This latest round is an indication of renewed confidence by investors in event-related financial products, especially those that follow a regulated framework.

CFTC dispute ends, clearing expansion path

The funding follows a significant regulatory trend. In May 2025, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) dismissed its appeal of a court decision that had permitted Kalshi to continue trading political prediction contracts. The case was over the question of whether these contracts were illegal gambling under commodities law.

The case dismissal eliminates one of the main legal impediments to Kalshi and provides a firmer establishment of political event markets in the U.S. Mansour celebrated the decision, citing that what previously had been considered unachievable is now inevitable due to the Kalshi team and community for bringing prediction markets into the mainstream.

In the 2024 U.S. presidential cycle, political markets on Kalshi reported a trading volume in excess of 875 million, further strengthening the platform’s appeal. According to Kalshi’s website, the platform also saw over 16 million trades during the New York City Mayoral Primary election.

Kalshi vs. Polymarket

Kalshi’s chief competitor, Polymarket, is also said to be raising capital by $200 million at a $1 billion valuation. Although Polymarket has taken the edge in open interest, with slightly below 600 million in active markets, Kalshi now has more active markets, based on third-party information aggregated by Polymarket Analytics.

Polymarket has gained notable popularity because of its massive election-focused pools aimed at predicting elections, including its U.S. presidential market, which exceeds $3 billion in volume. However, Polymarket does not hold licenses to conduct activities in the U.S., which presents a regulatory vacuum that Kalshi has exploited.

According to Bloomberg Intelligence statistics, the sports prediction markets run by Kalshi have also exploded in popularity, with the company making up 79% of all trading volume in March and the start of April. 

Kalshi has further integrated into the crypto ecosystem through a new integration with ZeroHash, allowing it to make deposits in Bitcoin, Solana, Worldcoin, and USDC. The move to accept digital assets stands to make the platform address networks of crypto-native traders. In yet another high-profile move, Donald Trump Jr. joined Kalshi as a senior advisor in January.