Kalshi expands Washington workforce to build political capital
Kalshi is expanding its Washington, D.C. workforce to build political capital amid uncertainty about the future of prediction markets, Punchbowl News reported Saturday, June 7. The staffing push aligns with broader industry lobbying through the Coalition for Prediction Markets, whose members include Crypto.com, Coinbase, and Robinhood, according to CryptoBriefing. The coalition is actively advocating for event contracts at the federal level. Kalshi's D.C. expansion comes during a volatile period for regulated prediction markets, as the platform simultaneously pursues institutional partnerships and defends its market position against retail competitors.
The hiring push puts Kalshi's lobbying team inside the room where event-contract legislation is drafted, but Robinhood already routes World Cup contracts to competitor Rothera and just launched perpetual futures. If D.C. gatekeeping slows, Robinhood's distribution dominance could outsprint Kalshi's regulatory strategy.
Joins Kalshi's $1B Series F, Sportradar data partnership, and Wintermute and Galaxy institutional desk launches as the fourth major infrastructure move this quarter, signaling the platform's bid to capture both regulatory legitimacy and institutional flow before competitors lock in retail distribution.