Kalshi Raises $185M at $2B Valuation as Prediction Market Race Heats Up

Federally regulated prediction market Kalshi has raised $185 million in a new funding round, pushing its valuation to $2 billion. This brings Kalshi’s total funding to $415 million, according to a company press release. The capital will be used to expand its engineering team, develop new market structures, and grow strategic partnerships.

The news follows closely on reports that Polymarket, a decentralized competitor, is raising $200 million at a $1 billion valuation in a round led by Founders Fund. While Kalshi leads in the number of active markets, Polymarket dominates in open interest—a critical liquidity metric—with nearly $600 million in volume, compared to Kalshi’s $113 million, based on data from Kalshi’s API aggregated by Polymarket Analytics.

Despite its regulatory edge, Kalshi is still catching up in user engagement. A Dune dashboard shows Polymarket boasts around 186,000 active traders, reinforcing its strong community traction. Kalshi, however, has been ramping up efforts to attract attention, including the recent addition of Donald Trump Jr. as a senior advisor.

Paradigm, a prominent crypto venture capital firm, led Kalshi’s latest round. The firm has been actively backing platforms challenging the boundaries of decentralized finance, including GTE, a DEX rivaling HyperLiquid on speed.

The rising competition between Kalshi and Polymarket reflects growing investor and user interest in prediction markets. As regulatory clarity improves and crypto-native platforms gain traction, the market for event-based trading is quickly becoming a major frontier in both traditional and decentralized finance.

With Kalshi’s latest funding boost and Polymarket’s momentum, the battle to dominate the future of prediction markets is accelerating—setting the stage for innovation, regulation, and high-stakes speculation.