If there ever was any doubt about the legitimacy of Kalshi, a prediction market company, it is probably safe to say that this is in the past now.
The platform went on to challenge not just the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in court and win, but it has now secured an even more important win, with an endorsement from the incoming administration, more or less.
Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of the President-elect, was appointed as a strategic advisor to the company on Monday, nodding at critics and backers alike, that Kalshi is probably here to stay and that prediction markets will thrive under the new Trump administration.
This comes at a time of heightened scrutiny against the sector, with Polymarket deemed an illegal gambling platform in Singapore and the platform preemptively withdrawing from France. At the same time, Crypto.com has launched its first prediction markets.
The CFTC has tried to shutter the company’s markets during the US Presidential election, and other political events, but chances are that Kalshi will now be expanding after single-handedly defeating the regulator in court and now securing an influential new partner.
Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour said in a statement for CNBC’s Squawk Box that Trump Jr. was an important asset to the company, owing to his interest and experience in technology and new forms of media.
"Don has always been at the forefront of these types of spaces and new technologies. He’s always been very in tune with what the American people feel and want," the executive said.
Trump Jr. also released a statement in which he praised Kalshi as a fair and objective market which his family and he used on the day of the election to check in on result – finding out who won hours before election day results were announced and contrasting these results with the "fake news media" and its reporting.
Kalshi has run into a few questionable markets over the past weeks, including beginning to accept markets on Luigi Mangione’s future, the man who presumably shot the UnitedHealth CEO.
Trump Jr. has been particularly busy over the past several weeks, as he has already joined several other companies, including the advisory board of Unusual Machines, a drone maker.
In the meantime, prediction market platforms may see a better day under the Trump administration and under a newly-appointed CFTC boss.
The position is important as Donald Trump has built a part of his campaign to appeal to the cryptocurrency industry which has long groused about the overreaching hand of both the CFTC and the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Whoever the incoming president picks will be more malleable on matters such as crypto and prediction markets, and this is for sure.
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