Spokesperson Elisabeth Diana attributes trade clusters to its liquidity incentive program
Kalshi said it has not been contacted by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and does not believe it is under formal examination, pushing back against reports of regulatory scrutiny.
We have not been contacted by the CFTC and don't believe there is any formal examination. As we’ve said, these data patterns are typical of liquidity incentive programs and common in financial markets.
CoinDesk reported on 22 September 2026 that a majority of volume in Kalshi's bitcoin and ether perpetual markets came from identically sized orders, often clustering around $2,500 or $5,000 for bitcoin and $5,500 for ether. The Wall Street Journal later reported that the CFTC was reviewing trading activity after nearly one million ether trades were executed in similar amounts, before deciding whether to launch an enforcement investigation.
Beni, co-founder of research firm Stealth Neolab, noted using public API data that Kalshi's ether perpetual logged about $539 million in 24-hour volume against $3.1 million in open interest, with $5,500 trades accounting for 48% to 58% of notional volume across four days in September.
Diana stated that Kalshi sends trading data daily to the CFTC as part of routine oversight. Addressing questions regarding potential wash trading, Diana said the exchange maintains a full surveillance team and dismissed social media speculation as rumors promoted by competitors.
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