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Kalshi has earned a place on the TIME 2026 list of the 100 Most Influential Companies, even as the prediction market operator faces legal fights in several states.
Good to Know
Kalshi no longer sits on the edge of finance and betting talk. The CFTC-regulated prediction market, launched in 2018, now lets users trade contracts tied to real-world outcomes, from Federal Reserve rate decisions to NFL game results.
TIME added Kalshi to the 2026 edition of the 100 Most Influential Companies list after a year of major growth. By 2026, Kalshi had topped 5 million users, reached a $22 billion valuation, and brought in $263.5 million in fee revenue during 2025.
Media groups have started using Kalshi data as well. CNN and CNBC now include Kalshi probability data in coverage, giving prediction market odds a wider place in financial and political reporting. A Federal Reserve working paper from February 2026 also found that Kalshi performed as well as, and sometimes better than, traditional Wall Street forecasting tools for inflation and interest rate expectations.
However, the legal side remains messy. Arizona filed criminal charges against Kalshi in March 2026, accusing the company of operating an unlicensed gambling business. Washington state followed with a lawsuit built on similar claims. Then, in Ohio, a federal judge ruled that Kalshi products counted as gambling under state law and placed them under the authority of the Ohio Casino Control Commission rather than the CFTC.
For the wider prediction market industry, Kalshi now sits in a strange position. Finance, media, and institutional users want more access to event contract data. At the same time, state regulators keep testing where CFTC authority ends and state gambling law begins, often pushed by the sports associations, such as the NBA who also just urged the CFTC to take a closer look.