Kalshi just fired a direct shot at Polymarket's dominance in crypto prediction markets. The federally regulated betting platform launched tokenized versions of its event contracts on Solana today, letting users trade their wagers anonymously on-chain. With $28 billion flowing through prediction markets this year alone, Kalshi's betting this move will tap crypto's massive liquidity pools and keep pace with its decentralized rival.
Kalshi just made its boldest move yet to court crypto traders. The prediction market platform announced today it's launching tokenized versions of its betting contracts on Solana, letting users buy and sell their wagers directly on the blockchain with full anonymity.
The timing couldn't be more strategic. Prediction markets are having their biggest year ever, with combined trading volume hitting nearly $28 billion through October according to Crypto.com research. That includes a record-breaking week in late October when $2.3 billion changed hands - right as election betting reached fever pitch.
"There's a lot of power users in crypto," John Wang, Kalshi's head of crypto, told CNBC exclusively. "This is about tapping into the billions of dollars of liquidity that crypto has."
The tokenized contracts work exactly like Kalshi's regular betting markets, but now they live on Solana's blockchain. Users can trade these tokens with the same anonymity that's made Polymarket a crypto favorite. It's Kalshi's clearest signal yet that it won't cede the crypto betting market to its decentralized rival without a fight.
Two major DeFi protocols - DFlow and Jupiter - are already plugged in as institutional clients, bridging Kalshi's traditional orderbook to Solana's on-chain liquidity. That connection gives Kalshi instant access to the blockchain's trading ecosystem while maintaining its regulated structure.
The battle for crypto traders has serious stakes. Digital asset holders trade prediction markets at much higher volumes than traditional bettors, Wang explained. With crypto's total market cap sitting around $3 trillion, that represents a massive pool of potential liquidity that could transform Kalshi's growth trajectory.
"If you have a market with no liquidity, then you don't really have a market," Wang said. "People can't really trade size or get the prices that they want."
Kalshi's been on a tear since winning its regulatory battle against the CFTC last year. The platform now runs about 3,500 markets and became the first exchange to offer federally regulated election betting to US traders in late 2024. That first-mover advantage helped it from heavyweights like Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital.
