Latest news with #Paradigm
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Kalshi Joins Polymarket in Unicorn Club With Latest Fundraise: Report
Prediction market Kalshi, a federally regulated competitor to Polymarket, has raised $185 million at a valuation of $2 billion, according to a press release. This round brings the company's total funding to date to $415 million, the release says. Kalshi said it plans to use the funding to scale the engineering team, launch new market structures, and collaborate with new partners. This comes less than a day after reports emerged that Polymarket was raising $200 million at a valuation of $1 billion, led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund. Publicly available data from Kalshi's API curated by Polymarket Analytics (not affiliated with Polymarket) shows that Kalshi has around $113 million in current active trading volume across all open markets, while Polymarket has just under $600 million. Kalshi now hosts more active markets than Polymarket, but remains behind in open interest, a key metric that reflects liquidity and trader conviction in prediction markets. A Dune dashboard shows that Polymarket has around 186,000 active traders. Paradigm led Kalshi's latest round. The crypto-focused VC recently led the Series A round for GTE, a decentralized exchange (DEX) that looks to rival HyperLiquid in speed. In January, Donald Trump Jr. announced he was joining Kalshi as a senior advisor. UPDATE (June 25, 2025, 20:00 UTC): Updates with figures based on a release sent by Kalshi versus Bloomberg reporting. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
‘Betting' site Kalshi, which predicted both Trump and Mamdani's wins, parlays $2 billion valuation
Kalshi, the prediction market and financial exchange platform that correctly predicted the outcome of the 2024 presidential election and recent New York mayoral primary, said it reached a $2 billion valuation on Wednesday following its latest funding round. The website, which functions more like a financial market than a traditional gambling website, allows users to buy into event contracts through 'yes' or 'no' questions. It's regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, allowing it to function in states where sports betting is banned. Kalshi skyrocketed to popularity this past year after its platform correctly predicted President Donald Trump would win over former vice president Kamala Harris — even when traditional polling had the two candidates neck-in-neck. Most recently, Kalshi's website correctly predicted hours before polls closed that Zohran Mamdani, the New York City primary candidate, would beat former governor Andrew Cuomo for the Democratic nomination. In its latest round of funding, Kalshi said it raised $185 million from investors, led by the venture capital firm Paradigm. Other investors included Peng Zhao, the CEO of Citadel Securities; Sequoia Capital, a venture capital firm; and Multicoin Capital, a crypto investment company, according to the Wall Street Journal. Calling it 'one of the fastest growing companies in America,' Kalshi CEO and co-founder Tarek Mansour told CNBC that its growth cements its trajectory to becoming a leading financial market. 'We always thought the mission of the company [is] the idea of building the most important financial market on the planet,' Mansour said. Investments in Kalshi come less than a year after it won a lawsuit against the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that now allows it to list contracts on the outcome of elections — something that has historically been outlawed. Mansour said it was their goal to create a financial market 'that could price anything' from elections to Academy Award predictions to sports outcomes. Kalshi and other betting markets have become a popular way for people to bet on the outcome of events, bypassing traditional gambling regulations. But the method of so-called 'backdoor gambling' has left lawmakers and regulators skeptical. "These contracts are a backdoor attempt to bring gambling into financial markets," Cantrell Dumas, the director of derivatives policy at Better Markets, a non-profit group that advocates for a safer financial market system, told Reuters. Three former government officials raised alarm bells about betting markets in October, warning Americans not to get too comfortable with them, given that there is little historical accuracy or precedent. Mansour acknowledged that Kalshi could serve as a powerful tool for the public to gauge the predictability of political events, but he said it should still not replace traditional polling. He reminded people that even in the recent New York City mayoral primary, there was 'volatility.'
The Independent
2 days ago
- Business
- The Independent
‘Betting' site Kalshi, which predicted both Trump and Mamdani's wins, parlays $2 billion valuation
Kalshi, the prediction market and financial exchange platform that correctly predicted the outcome of the 2024 presidential election and recent New York mayoral primary, said it reached a $2 billion valuation on Wednesday following its latest funding round. The website, which functions more like a financial market than a traditional gambling website, allows users to buy into event contracts through 'yes' or 'no' questions. It's regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, allowing it to function in states where sports betting is banned. Kalshi skyrocketed to popularity this past year after its platform correctly predicted President Donald Trump would win over former vice president Kamala Harris — even when traditional polling had the two candidates neck-in-neck. Most recently, Kalshi's website correctly predicted hours before polls closed that Zohran Mamdani, the New York City primary candidate, would beat former governor Andrew Cuomo for the Democratic nomination. In its latest round of funding, Kalshi said it raised $185 million from investors, led by the venture capital firm Paradigm. Other investors included Peng Zhao, the CEO of Citadel Securities; Sequoia Capital, a venture capital firm; and Multicoin Capital, a crypto investment company, according to the Wall Street Journal. Calling it 'one of the fastest growing companies in America,' Kalshi CEO and co-founder Tarek Mansour told CNBC that its growth cements its trajectory to becoming a leading financial market. 'We always thought the mission of the company [is] the idea of building the most important financial market on the planet,' Mansour said. Investments in Kalshi come less than a year after it won a lawsuit against the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that now allows it to list contracts on the outcome of elections — something that has historically been outlawed. Mansour said it was their goal to create a financial market 'that could price anything' from elections to Academy Award predictions to sports outcomes. Kalshi and other betting markets have become a popular way for people to bet on the outcome of events, bypassing traditional gambling regulations. But the method of so-called 'backdoor gambling' has left lawmakers and regulators skeptical. "These contracts are a backdoor attempt to bring gambling into financial markets," Cantrell Dumas, the director of derivatives policy at Better Markets, a non-profit group that advocates for a safer financial market system, told Reuters. Three former government officials raised alarm bells about betting markets in October, warning Americans not to get too comfortable with them, given that there is little historical accuracy or precedent. Mansour acknowledged that Kalshi could serve as a powerful tool for the public to gauge the predictability of political events, but he said it should still not replace traditional polling. He reminded people that even in the recent New York City mayoral primary, there was 'volatility.'
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Kalshi closes $185M round as rival Polymarket reportedly seeks $200M
Kalshi just raised a $185 million round, led by crypto-focused VC firm Paradigm, bringing the company's valuation to $2 billion post-money, representatives from Paradigm and Kalshi confirmed to TechCrunch. 'Prediction markets remind me of crypto 15 years ago: a new asset class on a path to trillions,' Matt Huang, co-founder and managing partner at Paradigm, told TechCrunch in an emailed statement. 'There's no better team than Kalshi to scale prediction markets and reshape how people think about everything from elections and economic markets to weather and sports.' The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the round. This news comes one day after Bloomberg reported that Kalshi's biggest but regulatory-troubled rival Polymarket is raising $200 million at around a $1 billion pre-money valuation, led by Founders Fund. That deal is not yet final, sources said. Founders Fund declined to comment. Prediction markets use blockchain tech to allow users to place bets on the outcome of everything from pop culture events to political ones. Doing the math, the investors backing Kalshi are paying more of a premium than the ones backing Polymarket, should the latter deal close as reported. There's a good reason for that. Polymarket has been banned from the U.S. since 2022 as part of an agreement with U.S. regulators at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). According to Polymarket's terms of use, a number of other countries and provinces have banned or restricted Polymarket, too. These include the United Kingdom, France, Ontario, Singapore, Poland, Thailand, Belgium, and Taiwan. Regulators argue that these are either betting markets and should be licensed like gambling facilities or they are securities markets and should be regulated as such. Kalshi, on the other hand, worked through a similar battle with the CFTC and came to an agreement to be regulated by the CFTC. U.S. residents may freely use the site. While a defiant, unregulated market may appeal to those who rail against such things, limited partner investors in venture funds also tend to prefer less risk. Still, if Founders Fund does write a big check, that could mean Polymarket is making headway in its hope to end the formal ban under a more crypto-friendly Trump administration. Elon Musk's X apparently isn't waiting for that. The two companies announced a partnership deal earlier this month to make Polymarket X's 'official' prediction market, though details of what exactly that entails were scant.
CNA
3 days ago
- Business
- CNA
Kalshi valued at $2 billion in latest funding round, CEO says
Kalshi has raised $185 million in a funding round that values the prediction marketplace at $2 billion, its CEO Tarek Mansour said in a post on X on Wednesday. The round was led by crypto-focused investor Paradigm, Mansour said. Investment firms Sequoia, Multicoin, Neo and Bond Capital, and Citadel Securities CEO Peng Zhao also participated. Kalshi offers its users opportunities to profit from predictions on everything from sports and entertainment to politics and the economy. Such event contracts have exploded in popularity since the U.S. presidential election last year. Event contracts have stirred intense debate in financial markets in recent months. Proponents say they offer a more accurate way to predict real-world outcomes than traditional polls as they rely on traders with money at stake. Critics, however, argue that these contracts amount to a "backdoor to gambling," a claim that Kalshi and its peers strongly dispute. Kalshi was founded in 2018 by Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara, who met while studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Following a successful court challenge against the Commodity Futures Trading Commission last year, the company gained approval to list contracts related to the White House race. The ruling also encouraged others waiting to dip their toes into the sector. Robinhood, best known for its stock trading app, launched a prediction markets hub in March.
