Kalshi ends volume incentive program following wash trading allegations while achieving $52.98B in September volume.
DeFi & Yields ·
Kalshi has decided to end its volume incentive program following allegations of wash trading, even as the CFTC-regulated prediction market platform recorded $52.98 billion in trading volume during September. The move comes as the platform faces scrutiny over potential market manipulation tied to incentive structures that may have encouraged artificial trading activity.
Volume incentive programs typically reward users or market makers for achieving certain trading thresholds, but critics have flagged such mechanisms as vulnerable to abuse when participants can simultaneously buy and sell the same contracts to inflate volume without genuine price discovery. Kalshi's decision to discontinue the program signals an effort to address these concerns and strengthen its compliance posture as a designated contract market under CFTC oversight.
It remains unclear whether regulatory pressure directly prompted the decision, what timeline the platform will follow for winding down the incentives, or how the discontinuation may affect future trading activity and user participation on the venue.