Users of prediction market Kalshi were able to bet on who they think will win the U.S. presidential election as of Friday morning ET, after the Washington DC Court of Appeals granted Kalshi permission to temporarily host election bets on Wednesday. The platform, which is only available to residents of the United States, allows users to place wagers on binary prediction contracts on a variety of topics spanning politics, technology, and entertainment.
Kalshi posted a 24-hour countdown clock for the start of betting on presidential elections on Wednesday at 4:45 p.m. ET, but later updated that countdown clock to expire at 8:15 a.m. ET on Friday. Kalshi co-founder Tarek Mansour did not respond to questions from Unchained on Thursday evening asking why the timeline was delayed, but later posted on X that the change was made at the CFTC’s request. As of Friday morning, both Kalshi’s website and its app were accepting wagers on the presidential election.
Kalshi competes with decentralized betting platform Polymarket, which is built on Polygon. As part of a settlement with the CFTC announced in 2022, Polymarket is required to restrict its platform to non-US users, though many Americans access it through a VPN.
In an email to Unchained, Tarek Mansour said that his company is not currently accepting wagers in crypto, but implied that it would be. “No crypto (yet),” Mansour wrote.
Kalshi is embroiled in a lawsuit against the CFTC, which regulates betting platforms, after the Commission blocked a Kalshi contract last September on whether Democrats or Republicans would win control of the House or Senate in this year’s elections. Judges ordered Wednesday that Kalshi be allowed to host the contract pending appeal.
As a result, Kalshi’s contracts on which party would control Congress went live on its website between 2 and 3 P.M. ET Wednesday. Users are restricted to buying these specific contracts in increments of 5,000, making the minimum bet $1,450 at the time this article was published. Users have already wagered over $50,000 on these contracts.
Kalshi users will be able to place wagers on who they think will win the U.S. presidential election for as little as $1, according to Mansour. He said the platform was not able to immediately offer the contract because, as with any CFTC-designated contract market, it must first go through a 24-hour self-certification process to launch new products.
In order to bet on elections, Kalshi users must deposit funds into a separate account on Kalshi than what they use for other contracts. Mansour said this is because the platform decided to launch elections on Kalshi’s new clearinghouse, which the company received a license for in August. This license allows Kalshi to work with retail brokerages, instead of only allowing users to access the platform through its app or website. “Kalshi owns the end-to-end infrastructure now,” rather than relying on a third-party clearinghouse, said Mansour.
The CFTC filed a motion Wednesday evening to expedite its appeal, which, if granted, would have lawyers for Kalshi and the CFTC making their oral arguments in early December. Kalshi has not yet responded to the motion.
(UPDATE: October 4, 10:57 a.m. ET): Updated to relect that presidential election bets became active on Kalshi on Friday morning ET, and include Mansour’s reason for the delay.
(UPDATE: October 3, 7:00 p.m ET): This article initially stated that Kalshi users would be able to place wagers on the U.S. presidential election at 4:45 p.m. ET Thursday. It was updated when Kalshi revised its website to say that its election betting product would go live on Friday at 8:15 a.m. ET.
