Kalshi Bridges Regulated Prediction Markets to Solana, Tapping Billions in On-Chain Liquidity

NEW YORK, NY – Kalshi, a federally regulated prediction market exchange, has announced the launch of tokenized event contracts on the Solana blockchain, marking a significant convergence of traditional finance with the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem. This strategic move aims to leverage Solana's high-speed, low-cost infrastructure to attract crypto-native users and enhance liquidity for its diverse range of prediction markets. The integration allows users to trade tokenized versions of Kalshi's event contracts, which cover outcomes from politics and economics to weather and cultural events, directly on-chain. DeFi protocols DFlow and Jupiter Exchange are instrumental in this expansion, serving as key partners to bridge Kalshi's off-chain order book with Solana's robust liquidity pools. John Wang, Kalshi’s head of crypto, stated, "This is about tapping into the billions of dollars of liquidity that crypto has, and then also enabling developers to build third-party front ends that utilize Kalshi’s liquidity." Tokenization provides several benefits, including non-custodial trading, instant execution, and increased transparency through on-chain settlement. These SPL tokens can be traded, lent, borrowed, or used as collateral within the broader Solana DeFi ecosystem, offering new avenues for participant engagement. Kalshi has also introduced "Builder Codes" and a $2 million grant program to incentivize developers to create applications on top of its global liquidity pool. This development positions Kalshi to directly compete with crypto-native prediction platforms like Polymarket, offering similar on-chain composability while maintaining its CFTC-regulated status. The move follows a period of significant growth for Kalshi, including a recent $1 billion funding round that pushed its valuation to $11 billion. The US prediction market landscape has also seen increased activity due to recent regulatory shifts, including the CFTC dropping its appeal against Kalshi in a key court case. Despite the federal regulatory clarity, Kalshi continues to face resistance from state-level regulators in jurisdictions such as New York, New Jersey, and Nevada, who view some of its contracts as gambling. However, the company is asserting its status as a federally regulated derivatives exchange. Kalshi's foray into Solana represents a bold step towards expanding the reach and accessibility of regulated prediction markets to a global, crypto-savvy audience.