Kalshi, the prediction marketplace, has announced that it will now accept deposits in USD Coin (USDC), a popular stablecoin, as it competes for users in anticipation of the upcoming United States elections in November. The platform will soon enable cryptocurrency deposits, with offramping being handled by ZeroHash, a crypto payments platform, according to a report by Fortune magazine.
The competition among political betting platforms is intensifying, with Polymarket, a Web3 platform, currently leading the pack and other rivals, including Kalshi, trying to catch up.
On October 7th, Kalshi listed event contracts that allow users to bet on the outcomes of the US elections, following a significant court battle in September. This marked the first time that an election prediction market has been granted permission to operate in the US, opening the door for other platforms like Polymarket to enter the market.
On October 28th, Robinhood, the cryptocurrency and stock trading platform, announced that it would introduce contracts for certain users to bet on the outcome of the presidential election between Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican candidate Donald Trump.
As of October 23rd, Polymarket’s website shows that approximately $2.6 billion is being wagered on the outcome of the November presidential election. Meanwhile, Kalshi’s flagship market, “Who will win the Presidential election?”, has accumulated nearly $87 million in total betting volume since its listing on October 7th, according to Kalshi’s website.
While US regulators have expressed concerns that election prediction markets like Kalshi could jeopardize the integrity of elections, industry analysts argue that they often provide a more accurate reflection of public sentiment compared to traditional polls.
Both Polymarket and Kalshi currently favor former President Trump to win the presidency by a significant margin. As of October 28th, the platforms peg Trump’s odds at 62% and 66%, respectively.
The November election will see Trump, who has expressed his desire to make America the “crypto capital of the world,” go head-to-head with Harris, who has been relatively quiet on the cryptocurrency industry.
According to Matthew Sigel, VanEck’s head of digital assets research, Bitcoin’s performance is creating a “very bullish setup” for the digital asset as investors prepare for the election, as he told CNBC on October 28th.