Kalshi Hits Record $3.01B Daily Trading Volume

Trading volume on Kalshi reached $3.01 billion on September 19 and another $2.82 billion the following day, according to a report by iGaming Times. Parlays accounted for most of the volume, at $1.92 billion on Saturday and $1.76 billion on Sunday.

Of Saturday's volume, 38%, more than $1 billion, came from the riskiest parlays involving eight or more outcomes with win probabilities as low as 2%. Actual player stakes on these parlays totaled just $4.1 million. The gap stems from how Kalshi calculates trading volume, which counts both sides of each transaction, meaning $1 in actual stakes can generate $1,000 in trading volume. One 10-event parlay, for example, attracted $219,000 in actual stakes but generated $71.5 million in trading volume after more than 40,000 transactions; the parlay ultimately did not hit.

Kalshi did earn a record amount in fees: $18.2 million on Saturday and $17.6 million on Sunday, surpassing the previous high of $16.8 million. Averaged across the week, the platform collected $12.9 million in daily fees, equivalent to approximately $1.2 billion annualized on a quarterly basis. Due to the rise in long-shot parlays, fees as a share of total volume fell from approximately 1% to 0.5%. Over the weekend, players lost $46.1 million on parlays and an additional $68.8 million on other contracts. Total trading volume across CFTC-regulated exchanges approached $8 billion for the weekend.