Kalshi is zeroing in on crypto traders in the lead-up to the U.S. election and beyond as political fervor among bettors reaches a fever pitch.

On Monday, the prediction market platform began accepting USDC stablecoin deposits, enabling U.S. traders to bet on the outcome of the presidential election and a host of congressional races. The move has brought a rush of betting volume to Kalshi, in addition to positioning the startup to take on crypto-native predictions market darling Polymarket, whose popularity has soared ahead of this year’s elections.

Kalshi notched over $20 million in USDC deposits from roughly 21,000 individual users in the 36-hour period since launching the feature, the platform’s Head of Market Research Jack Such told Decrypt. 

It’s the largest influx of deposits the company has ever logged in 36 hours, he said. Kalshi also saw a “big spike” in the number of individual deposits on its platform from retail traders, as well as institutional players such as TradFi brokerages that also offer crypto services, according to Such.

“The fact that USDC [can be on-ramped] immediately is a huge deal,” Such said. “For a lot of crypto-native people, going into a centralized platform and using ACH to deposit and all

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Author: Liz Napolitano