Kalshi seeks $40 billion funding as revenue tops $4 billion

Kalshi was in talks to raise fresh capital at about a $40 billion valuation, a jump of roughly 82% from the $22 billion figure attached to its Series F round in May.

According to The Information, Kalshi’s annualized revenue surpassed $4 billion in July, more than doubling from roughly $2 billion two months earlier. The report said the increase was largely driven by trading tied to the FIFA World Cup, with user engagement and betting volumes rising on match outcomes and related events.

As covered in July, Kalshi had already broadened its offerings with a pilot of biopharma prediction markets in partnership with AppliedXL. The company also operates under oversight from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and has positioned itself as a compliant alternative to offshore prediction-market platforms.

The fundraising talk came amid a more combative regulatory backdrop. CryptoSlate reported that New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Kalshi on July 31 over sports prediction markets offered without a state licence, while the CFTC on Aug. 11 directed KalshiEX LLC to keep operating after the company said New York’s enforcement campaign had created a market emergency.

New York argued that Kalshi was effectively running an unlicensed gambling business and sought to recover gains tied to the alleged violations, restitution for consumers and penalties equal to three times those gains. The CFTC said keeping the exchange running was necessary to preserve market resilience, orderly trading and price discovery, but the emergency order did not settle whether federal derivatives law pre-empts state gambling rules.