Kalshi Referral Program Kalshi referral code BEST: $25 to start, then up to $1,000 for referring friends

Kalshi referral code BEST, a sign-up code for new users, pays $25 in trading credit once you deposit $10 and place $10 in trades. Both steps are required, and you have 90 days from signup to complete them. A deposit on its own earns nothing, and your $10 in trades does not have to win; it only has to settle or fill as eligible Kalshi trades.

The credit is not a cash bonus. You trade with it the same way you trade with a deposit, and anything you win from those positions becomes withdrawable under Kalshi’s normal rules. You can lose the credit on a bad trade, and fees apply to the trades you place with it. The $10 you deposit can be the $10 you trade; nothing in the offer requires a second deposit.

Claim your $25 Kalshi bonus with code BEST

How to use the Kalshi referral code BEST

Enter the code during signup. Kalshi’s 72-hour window for adding a code after the fact (covered below) applies to a friend’s personal referral code, so do not count on it for BEST.

1. Open Kalshi through the DeFi Rate link. It carries the BEST offer with it.
2. Create your account. Name, email, address and date of birth.
3. Enter referral code BEST when the signup flow asks for it. Check that the offer appears in your Rewards area before you fund the account.
4. Verify your identity. Kalshi asks for the last four digits of your Social Security number and may ask for a photo ID. Most accounts clear in minutes.
5. Deposit at least $10. Debit card and Apple Pay are instant; a bank transfer can take one to three business days unless you use the instant option.
6. Trade at least $10. Any eligible contract counts. A $10 deposit split across two or three contracts gets you there.
7. Check Explore → menu → Your rewards. The offer card shows which steps are complete and when the $25 is issued.

A $10 Yes order on a contract priced at 50¢ buys 20 contracts and clears the trading requirement in one go. The order costs about 35¢ in fees at that price, which comes out of your deposit, not your credit.

Sign up with code BEST and get $25 after your first $10 in trades

Yes, Kalshi has a referral bonus. The refer-a-friend program pays $25 in trading credit to you and $25 to each friend who joins through your personal link, up to $1,000 for you. With your account open and the BEST credit on its way, this is how you keep earning. Using the Kalshi referral code BEST does not affect it; the signup code and the refer-a-friend program are separate offers, and every Kalshi user gets a personal referral link.

Kalshi referral bonus at a glance

• Referral bonus amount: $25 in trading credit for you and $25 for your friend, per qualified referral
• Earnings cap: $1,000 lifetime, which is 40 qualified friends, paid one at a time as each qualifies
• Friend’s requirements: sign up through your personal referral link, complete identity verification and place $25 in eligible trades within 7 days
• Your requirements: an open, verified Kalshi account
• Bonus delivery: credit posts when you select Unlock bonus beside the friend under Invited friends, or automatically on offers that do not require a claim. It lands under Portfolio → Predictions → Credit in the app and Activity → Credit on the website
• Credit expiration: 7 days after issuance. The credit cannot be withdrawn; trade it on eligible contracts and the proceeds can be

Your friend’s trading requirement is $25, not the $10 that BEST asks for, so they will need to deposit at least that much. Kalshi reads referrals from the link, not from a shared account or address, and self-referrals or duplicate accounts forfeit the credit on both sides.

Kalshi generates the link for you; there is nothing to apply for.

1. Open Explore in the Kalshi app.
2. Select the menu, then Your rewards (some app versions label this Referrals or Invite friends).
3. Under Offers, open Refer a friend (Predictions). The card shows your reward, your friend’s reward and the trading requirement.
4. Select share or copy link and send the full link.

Send the link rather than reading out the code. The link drops your friend into the right signup flow and attaches the code without typing. If a friend has already created an account without it, they can still add your code within 72 hours of creating the account, as long as no other code is attached, under Explore → menu → Your rewards → Have a code?. Depositing or trading in the meantime does not close that window, and the clock runs from account creation, not from finishing identity verification. Reopening the link or logging in again does not restart it. Once a code is attached it cannot be swapped, and adding a code on its own does not earn the bonus; the offer’s requirements still have to be met.

Tracking friends and unlocking the credit

Invited friends, on the same offer card, lists everyone who used your link and where each one is: account created, identity verified, trades complete. A name on the list is not a payout. The credit is ready when Unlock bonus appears beside that friend; select it and the $25 posts to your credit balance. Some offers credit automatically instead, so if the button never appears for a friend who has finished the steps, check your credit history before writing to support.

If a friend is stuck on a step, point them to the requirements in their own Rewards card. You do not need, and should not ask for, access to their account.

Your friend claims their own $25 separately. In their app, the bonus progress card on Explore shows the steps; See all steps, then Unlock bonus amount once it lights up. Some offers credit automatically, and entering the code again is never part of claiming. The two credits do not necessarily post at the same time.

In the app, credits sit under Portfolio → Predictions → Credit. On the website, open Activity → Credit. Check there before contacting support about a missing bonus; the balance on the home screen does not always separate credit from cash. Not every referral reward lands in predictions: a Perps referral credit sits in the Perps account, and credit cannot be moved between the two.

Credit has to be traded before it becomes money you can withdraw. The sequence is the same for BEST and for referral credit: Kalshi issues the credit, you place eligible trades with it, and the proceeds from those trades are withdrawable under your account’s normal rules. Credit you never trade expires on the date shown in your credit history.

The credit works on any contract your offer allows, at the same prices and fees as cash. It buys contracts, not safety. A Yes contract priced at 40¢ costs 40¢ whether you pay with credit or a deposit, pays $1 if Yes settles and $0 if No does. The three categories below are where most new Kalshi users put their first $25.

NFL

Kalshi lists game winners, spreads, totals and season markets for every NFL game, with prices moving right up to kickoff. An eligible Yes contract on a favorite at 40¢ turns $25 of credit into 62 contracts for $24.80 before fees; if the favorite wins, the position pays $62 in cash you can withdraw. Current prices on every game, with Kalshi beside the other exchanges, are on our NFL prediction market odds page.

NBA

The NBA season tips off this month, and Kalshi lists game winners, spreads and totals for every night of it alongside the season markets: championship, conference winners, MVP and team win totals. Game contracts settle the same night, so this is the fastest way to turn credit into withdrawable cash; a championship contract holds your $25 until June. Our NBA championship odds page compares the title prices on Kalshi and the other exchanges.

2026 midterms

Kalshi prices House control and Senate control as separate markets, plus the individual Senate and governor races, and every one of them settles on the certified result rather than a network call on election night. That makes the midterms a slower trade than a basketball game and a reasonable place to park credit you intend to hold.

Take the blue wave scenario, where Democrats win the House and the Senate on the same night. On Kalshi that is two trades, not one: a Yes on Democratic House control and a Yes on Democratic Senate control, each priced on its own. The House market usually trades closer to even, because the chamber flips often; the Senate market prices the specific seats Democrats would need to net, so it moves on individual races. Say the House contract is at 60¢ and the Senate contract at 35¢. Splitting $25 of credit evenly buys about 20 House contracts and 35 Senate contracts; if both chambers flip, the pair pays $55, and if only the House does, the 20 House contracts return $20 while the Senate position goes to zero. The same two markets let you trade the opposite view, or back one chamber flipping and the other holding. Our 2026 midterm election odds hub shows the live price on each chamber and race across Kalshi and Polymarket.

Kalshi limits signup and referral credit to US users aged 18 or older in states where its event contracts are available. Being able to open the app from outside the US, or from a restricted state, does not make an account eligible for the credit, and Kalshi checks location at deposit and at trade.

A few more rules that catch people out:

• BEST is for new accounts only. An existing user cannot earn a welcome credit by entering a new code; the refer-a-friend program is the route for existing users
• One signup code per account. If a friend’s link attached first, BEST will not apply, and the reverse is also true
• Kalshi can withhold or reverse credit for accounts it links to another account, to a restricted location or to compliance problems
• Each offer carries its own deadline for completing the trades: 90 days from signup for BEST, 7 days for a friend’s link. Miss it and the offer closes without paying

Kalshi runs four separate clocks, and the 72-hour one is the only one that is the same for everyone. The other three are set per offer and shown on its Rewards card.

Perps referrals are a separate program

Kalshi’s Perps product runs its own referral incentives, and they do not cross over. A predictions referral pays trading credit. A Perps referral, where offered, pays the referrer a share of the friend’s Perps trading fees, usually weekly, and gives the friend a discount on those fees. A friend who signs up through your predictions link does not earn you anything on Perps unless they also enable Perps and meet that program’s requirements.

Perps trading carries funding costs on top of fees, which is worth knowing before you refer a friend into that program on the strength of a discount.

You can sign up with BEST or with a friend’s referral link, not both. Kalshi uses “referral code” for either, which is where the confusion starts. BEST is DeFi Rate’s sign-up code for new users, and our Kalshi promo code page tracks its current terms day to day; a friend’s link carries a code tied to that friend’s account. Here is how they compare, offer first, then the terms that come with each.

The offer

• Bonus amount: sign-up code BEST pays $25 in trading credit; a friend’s link pays $25 to you and $25 to the friend who sent it
• Total earning potential: BEST pays once; a friend’s link opens the refer-a-friend program, where the referrer earns up to $1,000 lifetime over 40 qualifying friends
• Deposit required: $10 for BEST; for a friend’s link, enough to cover $25 in trades
• Trading requirement: $10 in eligible trades within 90 days of signup for BEST; $25 in eligible trades within 7 days for a friend’s link
• Claim limit: one BEST welcome credit per eligible new account; $25 per qualifying referral, up to the $1,000 cap, on a friend’s link
• Best for: BEST suits new users signing up on their own; a friend’s link suits new users who were invited, and existing users who want to earn $25 per referral

The terms

• How to sign up: enter BEST during registration; for a friend’s link, open the link or enter their code when the signup flow asks
• Where to find a friend’s code: on their Refer a friend card under Explore → menu → Your rewards → Offers; they share it from there as a link or code
• Code-entry window: enter BEST at signup; a friend’s code can be added within 72 hours of account creation under Your rewards → Have a code? if no code is attached yet, and depositing or trading first does not close that window
• When it pays: BEST credits after the $10 deposit and $10 in trades; a friend’s-link credit posts when Unlock bonus appears beside the friend, or automatically on offers that do not require a claim
• Credit expiration: referral credit expires 7 days after issuance; BEST’s is shown on its Rewards card
• Switching or stacking: neither; once a code is attached it stays, and the Have a code? flow will not replace it, so check Your rewards shows the right one before you fund the account

Whichever code you start with, your own referral link is live once your account is open. Signing up with BEST and then referring the friend who was going to refer you works, as long as they have not already created an account.

The code is rejected as invalid or expired. For BEST, confirm you opened Kalshi through the DeFi Rate link and typed the code exactly. For a friend’s code, confirm the account is less than 72 hours old and has no other code attached; a deposit or trade in between does not cause this error. Personal codes are fixed to the account, so asking your friend for a fresh one will not help. If it still fails, send Kalshi support the code and the exact error message.

A friend’s link did not track. Reopen the original link while signed in. If the code still is not attached and the account is inside the 72-hour window, enter it manually under Your rewards → Have a code?.

Your friend signed up but you have not been paid. Open their entry under Invited friends. In most cases they still owe identity verification or part of the $25 in trades. Once both show complete, select Unlock bonus, or check your credit history if the offer pays automatically.

You finished the trades and cannot find the credit. Check that the trades were on eligible contracts, reached the full amount and happened before the offer’s deadline, then look under Portfolio → Predictions → Credit. If nothing is there, give support the offer name, the code, the dates and the order IDs.

The credit will not withdraw. It is not supposed to. Trade it on eligible contracts first; the proceeds withdraw. Kalshi’s standard withdrawal checks also apply to an account that has only ever traded credit.

Kalshi is not the only exchange paying new users. Polymarket runs its own welcome offer when one is live, and other operators cycle promotions in and out. Our prediction market promotions page lists what is current. When you compare them with BEST, look at the deposit, the trading requirement, how long the credit lasts and the withdrawal rule, not just the headline number. A sportsbook’s bonus bet is a different product again and is not interchangeable with exchange trading credit.

Open your Kalshi account with code BEST