Kalshi tokenizes ‘thousands’ of its prediction markets using Solana

U.S.-based prediction market Kalshi is tapping Solana for a major onchain push. 

The fast-growing startup is launching tokenized versions of "thousands" of its betting markets in a bid to attract a crypto-native user base and sure up liquidity. The move also deepens Kalshi’s competition with Polymarket, which is native to the Polygon blockchain, as both continue to surge in growth. 

November represents the biggest month yet for both Kalshi and Polymarket, with the former’s spot voluming climbing to $5.8 billion and the latter’s to more than $3.7 billion, according to The Block's data.

The emerging duopoly kicked into hyper-growth following a policy reversal at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which had historically taken a cautious approach towards the largely academic world of event derivatives. 

Last week, the CFTC officially cleared the way for Polymarket to reenter the U.S. — after initially banning the unregistered platform — complicating the competitive landscape between it and its primary rival, Kalshi, which had come to dominate the American market while the blockchain-native Polymarket focused on global development. 

Kalshi now appears to be willing to go head-to-head with Polymarket in the onchain economy. The firm is reportedly working with Solana-based protocols DFlow and Jupiter to help bridge its off-chain orderbook to Solana’s liquidity and on new "Kalshi Builder Codes" enabling users to "permissionlessly monetize applications on top of [its] global liquidity pool."

"Trading terminals, weather sites, AI agents… anything you want to build can now earn fees and rewards proportional to volume," Kalshi said on X. 

This is not the first time Kalshi has turned to Solana.

In September, the startup launched a grant program “to support builders, traders, and creators pushing the frontier of prediction markets” on Solana and Coinbase-incubated Layer 2 Base. Kalshi also uses ZeroHash for crypto deposits and withdrawals on networks like Aptos, Avalanche, Sui, and a number of Ethereum Layer 2s. Polymarket enabled SOL deposits earlier this year. 

Though tokenizing its betting markets appears to be a major gamble — so to speak — for Kalshi. According to Bernstein, Kalshi’s distribution partner Robinhood accounted for about 57% of its October volume. 

It appears wherever one prediction market goes, the other will follow. In recent weeks, both Kalshi and Polymarket have signed distribution deals with the likes of Google Finance and the National Hockey League, for instance, while Galaxy Digital is exploring potential liquidity-provision partnerships with the rival platforms.

Last month, Kalshi said it raised $1 billion at a $11 billion post-money valuation, on the heels of news that Polymarket was again in the market to raise capital at a valuation upwards of $12 billion.

The Block reached out to Kalshi for comment but did not get an immediate reply.