Kalshi is reportedly in advanced talks to raise new funding at a roughly $40 billion valuation, a figure that would nearly double the prediction market exchange’s valuation just weeks after its last major funding round.
Financial Times reported Wednesday that Kalshi has been discussing a new raise at the higher valuation, citing people familiar with the matter. The report follows Kalshi’s May announcement of a $1 billion funding round at a $22 billion valuation, already one of the largest confirmed raises in the prediction market industry.
CNBC’s Contessa Brewer added a note of caution Wednesday, saying her sources close to the situation said Kalshi is not actively raising money right now. But Brewer said the valuation discussion reflects a surge in trading activity, with Kalshi recently doing more than $1 billion in daily volume during a full week of World Cup-driven trading.
Kalshi’s valuation ladder keeps climbing
A $40 billion valuation would mark another dramatic jump in Kalshi’s rapid private-market ascent.
Kalshi was valued at $2 billion in June 2025, $5 billion in October, $11 billion in December and $22 billion in May. If the latest reported valuation materializes, Kalshi would have increased its valuation by roughly 20 times in about a year.
The most recent confirmed round came in May, when Kalshi announced a $1 billion raise at a $22 billion valuation. DeFi Rate previously noted that the round extended a valuation climb from $2 billion to $22 billion in less than a year, reflecting both investor demand and the company’s growing trading volumes.
The Financial Times report suggests that valuation may already be stale, at least in private-market discussions. Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour also confirmed to CNBC on Wednesday that the company is thinking about a potential IPO, after The Information reported earlier this week that Kalshi had held informal IPO talks with investment banks. He said it would not happen this year.
Kalshi volume records keep resetting
The valuation talk is arriving during Kalshi’s strongest trading stretch to date.
Kalshi generated $8.9 billion in weekly volume during the week of June 15, according to DeFi Rate’s volume tracker. That smashed the previous weekly record of $6.38 billion set one week earlier, when Kalshi crossed $100 billion in lifetime notional volume and posted its first billion-dollar trading days.
The latest record included a full week of $1 billion-plus trading days, according to CNBC. Brewer said World Cup activity helped push daily volume above $1 billion and noted that trading was up more than 65% month over month. Kalshi notched its first billion-dollar trading days on the last two days of the previous week, June 13 and 14.
Kalshi closed May with $17.91 billion in notional volume, its ninth consecutive monthly record and a 21% jump from April’s then-record $14.81 billion. But Kalshi has already topped that May record during the first few weeks of June, with more than $19.8 billion in volume through the week of June 15, before the final week-plus of the month has been counted.
Kalshi valuation jump widens Polymarket gap
Kalshi’s reported $40 billion valuation would also widen the gap with Polymarket, its biggest prediction market rival.
Polymarket has drawn major institutional backing, including a strategic investment announced last year from Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange. That deal valued Polymarket at about $8 billion, while Bloomberg later reported that the platform was exploring a new raise at a roughly $15 billion valuation.
The difference may reflect investor preference for Kalshi’s U.S.-regulated exchange model, its sports-heavy trading momentum and its recent dominance in volume. It also underscores the core uncertainty around the business, with the activity driving a lot of Kalshi’s valuation surge, sports event contracts, also drawing the most legal and regulatory scrutiny.
