Nearly half of Kalshi's users suffered from the prediction markets platform’s technical glitches and delays during last Saturday’s college football games. One of the operator’s busiest trade session times.
Key Takeaways
- Nearly half of Kalshi's users faced technical issues during college football trading on Saturday.
- The company said the glitches were minor and that no funds or trading systems were affected.
- The outage coincided with Kalshi's recent $300 million Series D funding, valuing the firm at $5 billion.
Many users complained about not being able to execute orders, view balances, or open the site since it wouldn't load. The company confirmed momentary slowdowns but did not acknowledge any shutdown of an exchange that resulted in loss of funds.
According to CNBC, Kalshi's customer support message to affected users stated that the platform was "experiencing temporary delays" and that "balances and positions may not be accurately reflected." Several traders shared screenshots and videos showing inaccessible dashboards and stalled orders. CNBC confirmed that the website was unresponsive for more than 20 minutes before returning online.
Less than half of all users were affected by "minor glitches," and the company emphasized that "clearing, advanced trading, and institutional operations" were unaffected. The incident comes just days after Kalshi closed a $300 million Series D funding round, valuing the company at $5 billion.
Kalshi's $5 billion valuation fuels global expansion
The outage coincided with how fast Kalshi has scaled and how important it is for the reliability of the platforms to be at the top given the growing international expansion. Since it recently closed a $300-million Series D, Kalshi has introduced a single global liquidity pool that covers over 140 nations.
Just three months after its $2 billion Series C valuation in June, Kalshi's market value has more than doubled. The Series D round was co-led by a16z and Sequoia Capital, with additional participation from CapitalG, Coinbase Ventures, General Catalyst, Paradigm, and Spark Capital.
The global reach will enable users around the globe to trade on a single platform, disbanding fractioned regional markets. Through the adoption of a unified framework, Kalshi maximizes liquidity and price discovery for political, sporting, and financial events.
Company leaders characterize the step as a move toward putting prediction markets in the overall economic ecosystem.
Nevada regulators warn against prediction market partnerships
Regulatory pressure on prediction markets increased this month after the Nevada Gaming Control Board issued a warning to licensed operators about potential risks tied to partnerships with firms offering event-based contracts. The notice, signed by Chairman Mike Dreitzer, declared that under state law, “sports event contracts” qualify as wagers and can only be conducted by approved sportsbooks.
Companies identified in the advisory included KalshiEx, Crypto.com, and Robinhood.
The board’s action came shortly after a court decision against Crypto.com, which regulators cited as further evidence that prediction markets fall under the same legal framework as gambling. Kalshi is currently challenging the board in court over a cease-and-desist order, arguing that its activities are federally regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and therefore outside state jurisdiction.
In spite of those allegations, Nevada officials stressed that agreements with the result of non-sporting activities, for example, political elections, are prohibited. The board cautioned that any operator collaborating with unlicensed providers of prediction markets may receive disciplinary actions or lose their state gaming license.
