Overview
- The exchange told the CFTC in a Sept. 28 filing that its Volume Incentive Program will terminate no earlier than October 13, 2026, accelerating an earlier schedule that had run through Oct. 1, 2027.
- The original program paid traders from fixed per‑market reward pools based on each participant’s share of eligible volume, required trades to fall inside set price ranges for most contracts, and capped payouts at $0.005 per contract.
- On Sept. 25 Kalshi submitted a new Deposit and Trading Reward Incentive Program that allows time‑limited, targeted promotions tied to deposits or trading behavior and sets individual limits on how much each account can receive.
- Researchers flagged repetitive Ether perpetual trades that amounted to more than $5 billion in similar prints, the CFTC has reviewed those patterns, and Kalshi denies wash trading while saying outcome depends on exchange internal logs and surveillance records.
- Kalshi reported record headline volume in September (about $52.98 billion through Sept. 29) and is in reported talks to raise roughly $1 billion at a near $40 billion valuation, a context that makes incentive design and surveillance practices central to investor and trader scrutiny.