Kalshi Secures $185M Mega-Round at $2B Valuation—Paradigm Leads Crypto Elite’s Bet on Prediction Markets
Prediction markets just got a nine-figure vote of confidence.
Kalshi—the event-trading platform that lets you gamble on everything from Fed rates to meme stocks—just banked $185 million in a Series C that values the startup at a cool $2 billion. Paradigm anchored the round, with Sequoia and other blue-chip VCs scrambling for a piece.
Why it matters: When crypto-native heavyweights back a non-crypto product, it screams 'hedge.' Traditional finance is broken? Fine. But someone's clearly betting the house on regulated speculation being the next growth engine.
The punchline: In a world where 'disruption' means repackaging derivatives for millennials, Kalshi might just be the most honest casino on the internet. Place your bets—the house always wins.
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.
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