With global onchain crypto prediction market platform Polymarket set to return to the U.S. any day now, Kalshi is looking to rapidly accelerate its moves further into the crypto space in anticipation of the increased competition.
On Thursday, Kalshi’s recently-hired Head of Crypto, 23-year-old social media influencer and crypto trader and entrepreneur John Wang, told The Block that the company will be on “every large crypto application and exchange” within the next year.
In an interview conducted at the global crypto conference Token2049 in Singapore, Wang told the outlet:
“This next phase of Kalshi’s growth, which is about building an ecosystem of new financial primitives and trading front-ends on top of Kalshi, will be a 10x unlock for us. And crypto is core to this mission.”
face doxxed 💀
great article by the block on kalshi’s crypto plans https://t.co/S7rCsXOptc
— John Wang (@j0hnwang) October 2, 2025
Kalshi has been gradually pushing further into crypto arena
Initially limited to fiat banking options, Kalshi began letting users fund their accounts with USDC, the stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar, just prior to the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Further efforts to bring in crypto-native users came in April of this year, when Kalshi began accepting Bitcoin (BTC) deposits, as well as Worldcoin (WLD). In May, Kalshi added support for Solana (SOL) holders. Kalshi is partnered with leading crypto infrastructure provider Zerohash to convert crypto deposits and withdrawals into U.S. dollars.
Last month, Kalshi announced its KalshiEco program, for which it partnered with decentralized finance protocols Solana and Coinbase’s Base to provide technical support and grants to builders, traders and creators. Kalshi said the program was designed to support both “offchain and onchain innovation” by backing the development of a wide variety of trading tools.
Introducing @KalshiEco: a hub to support builders, traders, and creators pushing the frontier of prediction markets.
We’re backing offchain and onchain innovation, with dedicated grants partnering with @Solana and @Base.
Come join us in building the future of trading the future. pic.twitter.com/maeSBMhSmP— Kalshi (@Kalshi) September 17, 2025
Wang told The Block that Kalshi is working to partner with additional networks with its ecosystem support hub to further engage with different blockchain communities.
“The crypto community is the definition of power users, people who live and breathe new financial markets and frontier technology,” Wang said. “We’re welcoming a huge developer base who are excited about building tools for those power users.”
While Wang didn’t elaborate on what some of the future integrations with crypto apps and exchanges might look like, it seems likely some will resemble Kalshi’s partnership with the World app, the digital wallet and identity platform for Worldcoin. World users can trade on Kalshi with Worldcoin directly in the app via what it calls “the Kalshi Mini App.”
Prediction markets ‘Trojan Horse’ for crypto adoption
Kalshi already has an extensive selection of crypto prediction markets, letting users trade on different price benchmarks, including several hourly markets, as well as in contracts related to legislative and other industry developments. Wang said Kalshi is looking to further expand those market offerings “by a ton.”
Like with its integrations with retail brokers like Webull and Robinhood, which have contributed greatly to Kalshi’s record-breaking trading volume surge, partnerships and integrations with crypto platforms is a strategic way to bring in more traders who are already primed for prediction market adoption. The prediction market and crypto traders have a lot of demographic crossover, with a substantial number of younger, male users with tech savvy and high risk tolerance.
Wang told The Block that he believes the partnerships are mutually beneficial, as prediction markets can also drive users to crypto.
“I think prediction markets are like the Trojan Horse for (traders) to enter crypto,” Wang said, adding, “I think in 12 months I would have failed my job if we couldn’t look the crypto community in the eyes and be like, ‘We genuinely made positive impact here; we brought in new audiences into crypto.’”
