Overview
- Kalshi told the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Sept. 28 that it will terminate its Volume Incentive Program with an effective date no earlier than October 13, 2026.
- The Volume Incentive Program paid traders from fixed per‑market reward pools based on their share of qualifying completed volume, required trades generally to occur between $0.03 and $0.97, capped event‑contract rewards at $0.005 per contract, and excluded certain affiliates and designated participants.
- Independent researchers and reporting flagged more than $5 billion of repetitive ether perpetual trades made in roughly $5,500 increments, and The Wall Street Journal reported the CFTC was reviewing those patterns for possible wash trading.
- Kalshi rejects the wash‑trading suggestion, saying the prints came from market makers posting fixed resting quotes and that its systems block self‑matching; the company also filed a separate Deposit and Trading Reward Incentive Program on Sept. 25 and says liquidity incentives will continue into 2027.
- The move comes as Kalshi’s reported September volume rose to about $52.98 billion and the company holds talks to raise roughly $1 billion at an elevated valuation, a dynamic that could increase regulatory and investor scrutiny and change how traders respond to incentives.