Almost half of Kalshi’s merchants had been locked out of their accounts throughout a university soccer buying and selling surge on Saturday, as widespread glitches and delays crippled the platform.
Customers attempting to put bets noticed their orders caught mid-process, and balances merely vanished from view. In accordance with CNBC for nearly 20 minutes, the web site confirmed nothing however a spinning inexperienced “Ok”, leaving annoyed customers stranded with out figuring out if their wagers had gone via.
One in all them shared display recordings with CNBC displaying frozen Kalshi dashboards and clean wager slips. In a message despatched on to customers, the platform reportedly admitted:
“The Trade is experiencing non permanent delays. Balances and positions will not be precisely mirrored at the moment.”
Kalshi adopted up with an apology, saying it was “trying into” the difficulty that had merchants unable to course of orders or view their open positions. The corporate later mentioned the issue had been mounted, although many customers on X known as it “the longest twenty minutes in Kalshi’s historical past.”
Kalshi denies outage as merchants flood social media
After the chaos, Kalshi launched a press release downplaying the dimensions of the disruption. “Earlier right this moment, Kalshi skilled minor glitches that quickly affected some person experiences. No alternate outage occurred, no funds had been affected, and the problems at the moment are resolved,” the corporate mentioned. A spokesperson insisted that the alternate by no means stopped working correctly, emphasizing there was no affect on clearing or institutional buying and selling. “There have been some glitches and delays on our internet and app product, which affected lower than half of our person base,” the spokesperson added.
Nonetheless, screenshots and video clips confirmed in any other case. Some customers couldn’t entry balances, whereas others mentioned their bets had been both delayed or by no means executed.
Now only a week in the past, Kalshi had introduced a $300 million Sequence D funding spherical, pushing its valuation to $5 billion, up from $2 billion in June. The spherical was led by Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital, with backing from Paradigm, Coinbase Ventures, Normal Catalyst, Spark Capital, and CapitalG.
Like crypto’s Polymarket, Kalshi constructed its repute by letting customers commerce on real-world occasions, from soccer outcomes to who President Donald Trump would possibly pardon this 12 months.
Massachusetts targets Kalshi in sports-betting lawsuit
That enterprise mannequin now faces a serious authorized combat. In September, Massachusetts Legal professional Normal Andrea Pleasure Campbell sued Kalshi, accusing it of providing unlicensed sports activities playing beneath the disguise of “occasion contracts.”
“If Kalshi needs to be within the sports activities gaming enterprise in Massachusetts, they need to acquire a license and comply with our legal guidelines,” Andrea Pleasure Campbell mentioned in a press release. The state additionally requested the courtroom to dam the corporate from providing sports-related markets till the case is settled.
The stress unfold quick. Robinhood filed a lawsuit in opposition to Massachusetts, saying it anticipated to be focused subsequent as a result of it permits its prospects to commerce Kalshi contracts. Robinhood warned that the state’s actions may trigger “reputational hurt and probably felony or civil penalties.”
Kalshi argues it’s protected by federal regulation. It says the Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee (CFTC) treats occasion contracts as authorized prediction markets, and that federal oversight ought to override state legal guidelines.
Massachusetts disagrees. In a submitting with Suffolk County Superior Courtroom, the state mentioned Kalshi is making extra money from sports activities wagers than licensed sportsbooks akin to DraftKings or FanDuel.
“Sports activities occasion wagers comprised roughly 70% of Kalshi’s buying and selling quantity between February 25, 2025, and Could 17, 2025, which elevated to 75% from March 18, 2025 onwards—Kalshi’s first day providing single-game March Insanity markets,” the lawsuit says. “Kalshi made extra from sports activities wagers than licensed sports activities wagering platforms DraftKings or FanDuel over the course of the identical February via Could timeframe.”
