Kalshi is now offering tokenized versions of its event contract bets on Solana, the company told CNBC, marking its clearest bid yet to attract crypto traders who have turned to on-chain platforms like Polymarket.
The setup symbolizes Kalshi’s existing event-driven markets, ranging from politics to macro data, and makes them tradable on Solana, according to Monday’s report.
Tokenized contracts work similarly to Kalshi’s traditional products, but on-chain trading adds anonymity and aligns the exchange more closely with Polymarket’s model, the report said.
Tokenization is the process by which real-world assets are converted into blockchain-based tokens.
Support is already up and running, according to CNBC, with decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols DFlow and Jupiter connecting Kalshi’s off-chain order book to Solana’s liquidity.
Kalshi’s head of crypto, John Wang, told CNBC that the move is aimed at tapping into deeper capital pools as prediction market activity accelerates.
Tokenization gives Kalshi access to “trillions of dollars of liquidity,” allows developers to create third-party front-ends and helps maintain competitive pricing, Wang said.
Founded in 2018, Kalshi became the first exchange to offer federally regulated event contracts tied to the 2024 U.S. Congressional elections after a long struggle with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the report noted.
The company now operates around 3,500 marketplaces and closed a $1 billion funding round last month that valued the company at $11 billion, according to a report from TechCrunch.
As Polymarket launches in the US, CNBC noted that Kalshi will need more liquidity to keep up, something crypto-native traders might be particularly equipped to provide.
Learn more: State of Crypto: Kalshi and Prediction Markets Face Setback
