Kalshi’s $1B Mega-Round Hits $11B Valuation as Prediction Markets Explode

Prediction markets just got their unicorn moment—and Wall Street's watching closely.

The Billion-Dollar Bet

Kalshi secures a staggering $1 billion funding round, catapulting the prediction market platform to an $11 billion valuation. This isn't just another tech raise—it's a seismic shift in how markets forecast everything from elections to economic indicators.

Mainstream Meets Alternative Finance

Traditional investors are finally waking up to what crypto natives knew years ago: decentralized prediction markets outperform conventional polling and forecasting methods. The timing couldn't be better—global uncertainty creates perfect conditions for crowd-sourced intelligence platforms.

Regulatory Hurdles? What Regulatory Hurdles?

While traditional finance remains bogged down in compliance paperwork, prediction markets are bypassing legacy systems entirely. They're proving that when you give people skin in the game, you get better forecasts than any analyst's crystal ball.

The New Oracle Economy

This funding round signals more than just confidence in one platform—it validates an entire ecosystem. Prediction markets are becoming the oracle networks for real-world events, creating trillion-dollar opportunities that make traditional betting markets look like child's play.

Wall Street analysts are already scrambling to understand how a platform that lets people bet on Fed decisions just raised more than most hedge funds manage in a decade. Maybe they should've predicted that.

Prediction market platform Kalshi has closed a $1 billion funding round at an $11 billion valuation, more than doubling its worth in less than two months as the company rides a surge in mainstream adoption of event-based trading.

The round was led by returning investors Sequoia Capital and CapitalG, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Paradigm, Anthos Capital, and Neo, according to a person familiar with the deal, TechCrunch reported on Thursday. The fundraise comes just weeks after Kalshi announced a $300 million round at a $5 billion valuation in October.

The dramatic valuation jump reflects explosive growth in prediction markets following last year's presidential election. Kalshi's annualized trading volume reached $50 billion in mid-October, marking more than a thousandfold increase from approximately $300 million the prior year.

Kalshi allows users in over 140 countries to trade on events ranging from U.S. elections and film ratings to sports outcomes. The platform gained visibility with a high-profile marketing campaign during New York City's mayoral election earlier this month, purchasing subway ad space displaying live odds for the race between candidates.

The company is expanding beyond retail traders, onboarding banks and institutional investors with hundreds of millions in loan transactions expected this year. Loan pools cover areas including commercial real estate and aviation finance. Partners are integrating blockchain technology to tokenize loans, making assets traceable and tamper-resistant while improving transparency for investors viewing underlying loans on-chain.

Recent partnerships include StockX for sneaker and collectible markets, and Coinbase for USDC custody and payouts. Kalshi is also integrating prediction data into Barchart's platforms, expanding access for retail and institutional investors.

The capital injection strengthens Kalshi's balance sheet ahead of a planned IPO as the company continues international expansion. Co-founded by former hedge fund traders Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara, who met as MIT undergraduates, Kalshi successfully sued the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) last year to secure Americans' right to use its platform. The company remains engaged in legal disputes with state regulators who claim its activities constitute illegal gambling.

Kalshi's main rival, Polymarket, was reportedly in talks last month to raise another round at a $12 billion to $15 billion valuation, weeks after closing a $1 billion round at an $8 billion pre-money valuation, according to Bloomberg.