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Kalshi And Polymarket Offer A New Kind Of Trade
Trading everything // Illustration by Kate Walker
Both Kalshi and Polymarket are introducing new offerings that expand beyond their typical multiple-choice trades.
Why It Hits: In a few short years, the industry has come a long way from simply being able to bet on sports games through an app. Now, markets that were once accessible only to accredited trading firms are ending up in everyone’s hands — for better or worse.
Behind The Trades: The big bet moving forward is that whenever either Polymarket or Kalshi announces a new offering, the other won’t be far behind.
Case in point:
Kalshi announced that it will begin offering perpetual futures contracts, or “perps,” which “allow investors to effectively bet on whether the price of an existing asset will go up or down,” according to Axios. The offering will include cryptocurrencies.
Meanwhile, Polymarket announced that it will allow users to trade on “private company performance and milestones.” Axios specifically reported that the platform will let users bet on startup valuations.
Final Wager: Kalshi and Polymarket are locked in a heated battle for prediction-market users, so expanding the number of ways people can make money is the name of the game. But that’s easier said than done, as each new feature falls under a different regulatory framework.
Kalshi said it is “the first company in American history to offer perpetuals,” which will be regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Meanwhile, Polymarket’s new feature will not be available to US users because it would need to fall under SEC oversight. The company has not disclosed whether it is currently seeking that approval.
Prediction: The prediction market that offers the broadest range of opportunities to US-based users could ultimately be the real winner.
Together with SafeBets
Minnesota Just Made Prediction Markets A Felony
Last week, Governor Walz signed the first law in the country criminalizing the operation of a prediction market. Seven more states are lining up. The largest platforms in the category face criminal exposure. And this is just the beginning.
SafeBets is a prediction market without the legal gray area.
Users never place a wager. Never risk a stake.
The prize pool is funded entirely by public-market inefficiencies captured by affiliated trading companies — not by what other users lose.
Thanks to that unique architecture, SafeBets offers all the upside of calling market outcomes correctly, with none of the exposure that’s now catching up to the rest of the category.
Minnesota’s law doesn’t touch SafeBets. No state gambling statute does.
Different design. Perfect timing.
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Polled and Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.