Kalshi: Platform Profile

Kalshi is a federally regulated U.S. derivatives exchange built originally around event contracts and now expanding into leveraged perpetual futures.

Its prediction-market product allows traders to buy and sell contracts tied to defined real-world outcomes. Typical questions can involve economics, politics, weather, technology, sports, business, commodities and cultural events.

Kalshi is not a conventional sportsbook and is not a securities brokerage. The core exchange, clearinghouse and 2026 perpetual-futures FCM are separate regulated entities.

May fit better for

• traders who want CFTC-regulated event contracts
• investors hedging event-specific risks
• traders comfortable with binary settlement structures
• users who want an order-book prediction market rather than fixed sportsbook odds
• eligible U.S. traders interested in regulated crypto perpetual futures

May fit less well for

• investors seeking stocks, ETFs or mutual funds
• users who misunderstand contract prices as guaranteed probabilities
• users prone to compulsive event speculation
• investors who cannot tolerate total loss of a contract premium
• traders who do not understand leverage on perpetual futures

Regulatory structure

KalshiEX LLC

The core exchange is KalshiEX LLC, a CFTC-designated contract market since 2020. It lists and operates the exchange for event contracts and other approved products.

Kalshi Klear LLC

The current clearinghouse is Kalshi Klear LLC, registered by the CFTC as a derivatives clearing organization on August 28, 2024. It is permitted to clear applicable futures, options on futures and swaps under its registration.

KalshiEX and Kalshi Klear are distinct entities.

Kalshi Prime LLC

Kalshi's newer perpetual-futures product introduces a third major entity, Kalshi Prime LLC, a CFTC-registered Futures Commission Merchant. Kalshi Prime is the FCM handling most current retail perpetual-futures margin accounts.

Its role includes KYC for the margin account, customer margin, risk monitoring and holding customer funds in the applicable segregated structure. The perpetuals margin account is separate from the predictions balance.

Event contracts

Kalshi event contracts are financial derivatives whose payoff depends on a defined future event. Many contracts have binary YES or NO outcomes.

Contract prices typically trade between 1¢ and 99¢. A winning contract settles at $1 and a losing contract settles at $0.

Contract-price example

Suppose a YES contract trades at $0.40. If the event occurs, $1.00 − $0.40 = $0.60 gross profit per contract before fees. If the event does not occur, the loss is $0.40 before fees.

Contract price is therefore economically related to the market's implied odds, but it is not a statistically guaranteed probability.

Prediction-market fees

Kalshi's general fee is based on expected contract earnings. The current general taker-fee formula is fee = round up(0.07 × C × P × (1−P)), where C is the number of contracts and P is the contract price in dollars.

The current general maker-fee formula for markets where maker fees apply is fee = round up(0.0175 × C × P × (1−P)).

Market-specific fee schedules can differ. The live fee schedule for a particular market always controls.

Fee example at 50¢

For 100 contracts at P = 0.50, the general taker formula gives 0.07 × 100 × 0.50 × 0.50 = $1.75 before required rounding mechanics. The maker formula where applicable gives 0.0175 × 100 × 0.50 × 0.50 = $0.4375, rounded according to the fee schedule.

The fee is highest near 50¢ because P × (1−P) is largest around 0.5. That differs from a simple flat percentage of contract notional.

Maker vs taker

A taker order executes immediately against existing liquidity. A maker order rests on the order book and is filled later. Not every market has the same maker-fee treatment, so makers do not universally trade free.

Market categories

Kalshi's event-contract catalog can include current markets involving economics, interest rates, inflation, politics, elections, business, technology, crypto, weather, commodities, sports and culture.

Product availability changes rapidly, and individual current contracts are not permanent platform capabilities.

Market prices are not objective probabilities

A 65¢ YES price is often interpreted as approximately a 65% market-implied chance. That is useful shorthand, but it is not the same as a model-based calibrated probability.

Prices can be affected by liquidity, trader composition, transaction costs, positioning, information asymmetry and contract wording. A contract can be correctly priced by the market and still settle against a particular trader.

Contract terms matter

Event contracts settle according to exact rules. Important fields can include the settlement source, measurement period, cutoff time, contract definition, edge cases and cancellation rules.

A trader should read the specific contract before trading. A casual interpretation of the question headline can differ from the legal settlement rule.

Eligibility

Current individual eligibility requires a minimum age of 18 and identity verification.

Kalshi is now available in many international jurisdictions, subject to restricted countries and local law, so access is jurisdiction-specific rather than U.S.-residents-only for prediction markets.

Deposits and withdrawals

Funding methods vary by jurisdiction and account type. International users can have different available methods from U.S. users, so no single payment method should be assumed everywhere.

Kalshi is an exchange, not the counterparty to outcomes

Kalshi states that it operates as a neutral exchange and earns transaction fees rather than taking a directional financial interest in whether an event settles YES or NO.

Contracts are peer-to-peer through the exchange structure. That distinction is central to how Kalshi differs from a traditional sportsbook acting as the house.

Perpetual futures launched in 2026

Kalshi expanded beyond prediction markets in 2026 with crypto perpetual futures. Current launch assets include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, XRP, Dogecoin, Chainlink, Polkadot and Litecoin.

Perpetual futures have no fixed expiration. They track underlying price exposure and use leverage and margin.

Perpetuals require separate approval

Perpetual futures are not automatically enabled for every Kalshi user. Current requirements include being a U.S.-based user, completed KYC, a margin-account application, a suitability/risk questionnaire, approval and a mandatory educational tutorial.

International prediction-market access does not mean international perpetual-futures access.

Predictions balance and perps balance are separate

Kalshi explicitly separates the predictions account and the perpetuals margin account. A liquidation in the perpetuals account does not draw automatically from the predictions balance.

Perpetuals leverage

A trader can control a position materially larger than the margin posted. With $100 margin at 5x leverage, notional exposure is $500. A 10% adverse move on $500 is $50, which equals 50% of the posted $100 margin before fees and funding.

Leverage magnifies risk.

Perpetuals fees

Current perpetual-futures fees are based on notional position size, not simply posted margin. Fees apply on opening and closing. Funding payments are separate from trading fees, and prediction-market fee formulas do not apply to perpetual futures.

Perpetual funding

Perpetual contracts use funding payments to help anchor contract prices to underlying reference markets. Funding can be paid or received, and it is not the same as an exchange transaction fee. A position held for a long time can accumulate meaningful funding economics.

Protection structure

Prediction markets and perps do not use SIPC securities protection and are not covered by FDIC investment protection. KalshiEX is a CFTC-regulated exchange, Kalshi Klear is a CFTC-registered clearinghouse, and FCM customer segregation applies to perpetuals margin.

CFTC regulation does not protect a trader from losing money on a correctly functioning contract.

Risk of total loss

A fully collateralized binary contract can lose its entire purchase price. Perpetual futures can produce rapid leveraged losses and liquidation. Prediction markets can also encourage excessive short-term event speculation.

Assessment

Kalshi is no longer only a prediction-market platform.

Event contracts remain the core product, but the 2026 addition of regulated crypto perpetual futures turns Kalshi into a broader derivatives exchange ecosystem.

That expansion makes entity separation especially important: KalshiEX operates the exchange, Kalshi Klear clears applicable contracts, and Kalshi Prime handles the current retail perpetual-futures margin relationship.

For prediction-market users, the most important analytical point is that a market price is a tradable price, not a guaranteed probability. For perpetuals users, the most important point is leverage.

Neither product should be treated like a conventional long-term brokerage investment.