Kalshi, the regulated prediction market exchange, is now accepting Bitcoin deposits as it looks to attract more crypto-native traders to its platform. The company confirmed the move today, citing strong traction from the crypto community in trading event contracts tied to digital assets and politics.
The CFTC-regulated platform saw over $143 million in trading volume specifically from markets that track Bitcoin’s price on an hourly basis. Kalshi currently hosts around 50 crypto-related event contracts, including predictions tied to 2025 highs and lows for major tokens, and speculative wagers on topics like US President Donald Trump’s proposed National Bitcoin Reserve.
Bitcoin joins stablecoin USDC as the second crypto funding option on the platform. Kalshi began supporting stablecoin deposits in October and uses ZeroHash to convert crypto deposits into US dollars. Bitcoin transfers are only accepted from the native BTC network.
Since its 2021 launch, Kalshi established itself as a go-to exchange for political and financial prediction markets. Its popularity surged after a successful legal challenge against the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which tried to block Kalshi from listing election-related contracts. The exchange prevailed in court, and analysts have since argued that such markets reflect public sentiment more accurately than traditional polls.
The platform now estimates a 68% chance of the US entering a recession this year. In March, Kalshi also inked a partnership with Robinhood, bringing its prediction contracts to millions of retail users and helping boost Robinhood’s stock price by 8% after the announcement.
Kalshi’s expansion into Bitcoin deposits places it in closer competition with Polymarket, a decentralized Web3-based prediction platform that recorded over $3 billion in volumes for its US election markets. Polymarket, however, remains inaccessible to US users, giving Kalshi a regulatory edge in a fast-growing niche that merges crypto, finance, and political speculation.
Earlier in March, Kalshi filed lawsuits against the Nevada Gaming Control Board (GCB) and New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) after both state regulators ordered the company to halt its sports-related event contracts.
Kalshi argues that as a federally regulated commodities exchange, it falls under the jurisdiction of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) — not state gambling regulators.
Kalshi is pushing back, arguing that its event contracts function as financial derivatives — not wagers — and that they fall within the regulatory framework established by Congress via the Commodity Exchange Act. The lawsuits claim the state actions are both field-preempted and conflict-preempted by federal law, meaning that state enforcement would override and interfere with federal authority.
The core of the dispute is whether event-based trading — such as betting on a sports game outcome or an election result — should be classified as gambling, which is traditionally regulated by states, or regulated financial trading, overseen at the federal level.
In February, CFTC acting director Caroline Pham said the agency would shift away from regulation-by-enforcement and focus on fraud, fraud victims, and legal clarity. The CFTC has also taken no action against Kalshi’s controversial Super Bowl contracts, despite reviewing them earlier this year.
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