Skip to main content
Kalshi is the first CFTC regulated exchange dedicated to trading on the outcome of future events. From inflation, to fed rates, to unemployment, to will the government shut down, Kalshi allows people to trade on a broad range of topics. Kalshi has developed a new asset class, event contracts, where you can buy Yes or No positions with respect to whether an event will happen or not. Kalshi’s vision is to allow people to capitalize on their opinions, trade in the domain of every day, and hedge risks that relate to them.

Event Contracts

Kalshi’s Event Contracts give people the ability to trade based on their opinions about a specific yes-or-no question. For example, if you have student debt and are worried about relief not passing, you can purchase a contract and get a payout even if it doesn’t pass. If you’re worried about the economic fallout of the government shutting down, you can place a trade to hedge against it. If you’ve developed a model on inflation, you can profit from that and maybe even offset your rising costs. Event Contracts have an interesting side effect - the price that a given event contract trades at is actually the market’s assessment of the probability that the event will happen. Kalshi’s inflation and federal rate forecasts have been more accurate than economists, pundits, and traditional news outlets over the past year. Kalshi offers Event Contracts on a wide range of topics, including economics, culture, weather, scientific advancements, and traditional financial markets such as commodities, forex, S&P, and NASDAQ indices.

Key Features

  • CFTC Regulated: Kalshi is regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as a Designated Contract Market (DCM)
  • Event-Based Trading: Trade on the outcome of future events with Yes or No positions
  • Broad Market Coverage: Event contracts on economics, politics, sports, culture, crypto, climate, health, and more
  • Market Probability Assessment: Event contract prices reflect the market’s assessment of event probability
  • Risk Hedging: Ability to hedge against everyday risks and economic events
  • Election Trading: First fully regulated platform in over a century to offer legal election trading in the United States

Company History

Kalshi was founded in 2018 by Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara, who met while studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). During their early careers at financial institutions like Goldman Sachs, Citadel, and Bridgewater, Tarek and Luana observed that many financial decisions were driven by predictions about future events. However, they noticed a gap in the market: there was no straightforward way for people to trade directly on event outcomes. In 2019, Kalshi was accepted into Y Combinator’s Winter batch, where the team further developed the platform. In 2020, Kalshi made history by becoming the first fully regulated financial exchange in the U.S. specifically for event contracts, officially designated as a Designated Contract Market (DCM) by the CFTC. In 2024, Kalshi achieved a historic milestone by becoming the first fully regulated platform in over a century to offer legal election trading in the United States, following a federal appeals court ruling that upheld Kalshi’s right to list contracts on political outcomes.

Kalshi Data on Dune