Kalshi Gets $1 Billion Coatue-Led Round at $22 Billion Value

Kalshi has raised $1 billion in a Series F financing that values the New York prediction market company at $22 billion, the platform said Thursday. Coatue led the round, with Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, IVP, Paradigm, Morgan Stanley and ARK Invest also participating. The deal gives Kalshi one of the largest private-market valuations in financial technology at a time when event contracts are moving from online speculation into a more formal trading category. sources reported that the new valuation is twice the $11 billion mark Kalshi reached about five months earlier asourceser a separate $1 billion Series E round.

A Wall Street Pivot

The fundraising comes as Kalshi tries to turn consumer momentum into institutional adoption. The company said trading by institutional users rose 800% over the past six months, while its annualized platform volume climbed to $178 billion asourceser standing at $52 billion earlier in that period. Kalshi also said it handles more than 90% of U.S. prediction market activity and a majority of worldwide volume. That scale helps explain why investors are treating the business less like a niche betting app and more like a new trading venue for measurable real-world outcomes.

Event Contracts Leave the Niche

Prediction markets let traders buy contracts tied to the outcome of events, ranging from elections and inflation releases to sports, entertainment and corporate milestones. The core idea is simple: prices move as traders update their expectations, creating a market-based signal about future events. Kalshi’s advantage in the U.S. is that it operates through a regulated exchange structure, while rival Polymarket built its early global reach through crypto rails. That regulatory distinction matters because the category is being pulled toward both financial-market oversight and state-level gambling rules at the same time.

Hedge Funds Enter the Frame

Kalshi said the new money will support expansion across hedge funds, asset managers, proprietary trading firms and insurers. The company is also investing in block trading, risk-management tools and closer integrations with brokerage platforms. Those priorities point to a business model that depends on more than casual users betting on headlines. For institutions, event contracts can function as a hedge against risks that are hard to express through stocks, bonds, commodities or conventional derivatives, including policy decisions, weather outcomes and discrete geopolitical events.

Sports and Crypto Drive Volume

The wider market is growing quickly, but its base is still heavily retail. A Bitget Wallet and Polymarket report said monthly prediction market volume reached $25.7 billion in March, up 10.6% from February, with 82.3% of users trading less than $10,000. The same data showed sports and crypto contracts as leading categories, with sports accounting for $10.1 billion of first-quarter activity and crypto-related markets generating $7.3 billion. That mix gives platforms liquidity and repeat engagement, but it also exposes them to the regulatory tensions that have long surrounded sports betting.

Polymarket Sets the Benchmark

Kalshi is not scaling in isolation. The Block reported that Kalshi and Polymarket crossed $150 billion in combined lifetime volume in April, though April also ended a seven-month run of record monthly activity for the two leading platforms. Polymarket, which has a broader international profile, has been working on a U.S. return and has reportedly been seeking fresh capital at a multibillion-dollar valuation. The competitive question is whether U.S. regulatory status, global liquidity, brokerage access or institutional trust becomes the deciding factor in who controls the category.

Regulators Shadow the Expansion

The main risk for Kalshi is that its fastest-growing products sit in a legal gray zone contested by state gambling officials, the CsourcesC and courts. A bipartisan group of 41 state attorneys general recently urged the CsourcesC to leave sports-related prediction markets under state authority, arguing that these contracts resemble sportsbook wagers and should face state licensing, tax and consumer-protection rules. Federal and state disputes involving Kalshi have already produced mixed court outcomes, keeping the operating map unsettled. The new funding gives Kalshi more capital to build for institutions, but its next phase will depend as much on legal clarity as on trading volume.