Kalshi caps monthly deposits at $2,500 for traders under 21

Kalshi has imposed a default $2,500 monthly deposit limit on every account held by traders aged 18 to 20, while automatically placing those users in special accounts with additional protections and responsible-trading education. The regulated prediction-market exchange said the measures are intended to address the risks faced by younger adults entering financial markets.

The new accounts build on existing controls. Kalshi monitors young-adult trading for risky patterns and can escalate its response from educational resources to trading blocks. After a first trade, users in the age group are shown tools to limit time and money spent on the platform and are offered confidential mental-health support through Birches Health.

The company has also introduced a diversification warning for new traders with balances above $1,000 who put more than 25% of their money into one trade. It said the alert encourages users to spread their exposure rather than concentrate it in a single position.

Kalshi is working with Parent ProTech and ConnectSafely on Parents' Guides to Prediction Markets. The guides are meant to help families discuss responsible trading and prevent minors from accessing the platform. Its Inner Circle feature can allow parents or other loved ones to receive real-time notifications on how much and how often 18-to-20-year-old users trade.

The platform does not allow anyone under 18 to trade, using Know Your Customer identity checks to reject underage applicants. It also offers all users trading breaks, self-set limits and self-exclusion, alongside account-security measures including default Face ID on supported devices, selfie checks for higher-risk accounts and expanded two-factor authentication.

The changes come as youth participation in the market has drawn attention. As covered in August, CNN estimated that traders aged 18 to 21 had placed $5.4 billion on Kalshi during the year to that point, principally in sports and parlay contracts.

Kalshi operates under Commodity Futures Trading Commission oversight as a financial exchange, while most online sportsbooks require users to be older than 21. The company has said it is speaking with regulators about further customer safeguards. Chief executive Tarek Mansour said he would be open to regulators setting 21 as the minimum age for prediction-market trading, even as he argued that prediction markets are fairer, more transparent and more economically useful than sportsbooks.