Utah Archives

Kalshi plans to compete with traditional financial exchanges after securing $1 billion at a $40 billion valuation on Thursday. Meanwhile, Utah has filed criminal charges against the prediction market operator and its co-founders. Good to know Kalshi has raised $1 billion twice in five months, increasing its valuation from $22 billion to $40 billion. The company plans more financial products and investment in institutional trading. Utah filed 13 felony charges and one misdemeanor against Kalshi and its co-founders. Institutional customers already account for a sizeable part of the business. Kalshi said in September that it worked with 500 institutional entities. Excluding market makers, those customers generated 25% of total trading volume. The new funding will help develop that business as Kalshi builds an exchange covering more than sports results and election outcomes. Sequoia Capital and Wellington Management co-led the round, with Sequoia returning after participating in May. Kalshi Plans More Than Event Contracts Kalshi began offering perpetual futures in May, becoming the first prediction market operator to introduce them. Often called perps, these contracts let traders take positions on asset prices without an expiration date. Next on the development list are leveraged contracts, perpetual futures tied to individual stocks and contracts referencing compute prices. Put simply, the latter would let participants trade around the cost of digital processing power. Those plans bring Kalshi into competition with established financial exchanges. They also give investors more to consider than the next busy NFL weekend. The $40 billion valuation sits nearly 82% above the $22 billion figure from May, when Kalshi also raised $1 billion. Its latest funding therefore represents a second billion-dollar round in five months. An initial public offering remains another topic of discussion. CEO Tarek Mansour had previously played down the prospect of seriously considering an IPO in 2027, before the latest valuation. “A company of our financial profile with the rate of growth that we’re seeing, that sort of conversation has to happen,” he said on CNBC’s Squawk Box. Utah Challenges the Business Behind the Growth However, the sports event contracts helping Kalshi attract traders also sit at the centre of its legal disputes. Utah became the second U.S. state, after Arizona, to bring criminal charges against Kalshi and its co-founders, CEO Tarek Mansour and COO Luana Lopes Lara. Prosecutors filed one second-degree felony, 12 third-degree felonies and one misdemeanor. The charges remain allegations. Utah prohibits gambling, and Attorney General Derek Brown argues that sports contracts covering spreads, moneylines and totals fall under that ban. “Calling it a ‘prediction market’ doesn’t change what it is, and being federally registered doesn’t put a company above the law,” Brown said. Kalshi disputes that interpretation. It maintains that its event contracts are “swaps,” not bets, and that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has exclusive regulatory authority. The company called the prosecution a “crazy overreach” and described it as political. “We look forward to putting a stop to this in court, just like we did in Arizona,” Kalshi said in a statement to the AP. The dispute predates the charges. Kalshi sued Utah in February, but a federal judge ruled in August that federal law did not prevent Utah from enforcing its gambling laws. Nearly 20 states are involved in litigation with Kalshi. The wider dispute could eventually reach the Supreme Court, although a resolution may remain months away. Football and Elections Deliver Record Trading For now, traders keep coming. Kalshi recorded $5.1 billion in trading volume on October 24 as college football, the NFL season and interest in the November 3 midterm elections helped drive activity. Trading volume measures contracts bought and sold, rather than company revenue. That total dwarfed its busiest day during the 2026 FIFA World Cup. On July 5, Kalshi handled $608 million in trades, with the tournament providing sports contracts during the quieter American summer schedule. Election trading adds another source of activity alongside football. Mansour described the upcoming vote as “the first prediction market election,” referring to the wider use of market data by institutions and mainstream audiences.

Utah

Kalshi Raises $1B At $40B Valuation, Utah Files Criminal Charges

Utah Targets Kalshi And Susquehanna Over Gambling Fees

Kalshi Goes to Court in Utah Over Prediction Market Access

Lawmakers in Utah Seek Clarification on Prop Bets, Outright Ban