Kalshi drew in $21.5 billion in trading volume in the week ending October 18, according to data from Artemis. This makes it the 10th consecutive week in which the prediction market has registered a record.
During the same week, the number of trades on the platform also crossed a milestone of over 100 million for the very first time, landing at 106.6 million. This is more than three times larger than its biggest competitor, polymarket, which saw 31 million trades last week.
Data shows that a massive chunk of the volume came from the “without sports” label. This category saw $17.6 billion in weekly volume or roughly 82% of the total volume. NFL contracts brought in around $860 million or 4% of the total while Politics did $13.1 million, with the U.S. midterms two weeks away.
Kalshi’s Non-Sports Volume Looks Mostly Like Sports Parlays
Kalshi doesn’t place its combos under sports and its own API documentation puts them in a separate “Exotics” category altogether. Artemis does not indicate how it defines the “without sports” bucket, so that chart alone can’t confirm what sits inside it. Kalshi’s volume breakdown into separate categories on Ticker Tracker helps clarify the picture. Combos did $14.35 billion between October 12 and October 18, which comes up to 67.2% of the platform’s weekly volume. Single-market sports brought in $3.98 billion and this includes the $860 million NFL contracts but excluding the NFL combos.
Take single-market sports out of Ticker Tracker’s total and you’re left with $17.4 billion, close to Artemis’ $17.6 billion. Combos and nearly $2.6 billion in crypto account for most of the volume from last week. Everything else, from commodities to elections, trails far behind.
Crypto Contracts Hit a $2.6 Billion High
Crypto contracts which have nothing to do with sports are the next real driver of this growth in trading volume. Volume within this category reached a new all-time high of $2.6 billion last week and a massive reason for this growth is being fuelled by the 15-minute up/down contracts on Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Solana and other tokens. These markets run 24/7, giving Kalshi a steady base between game days.
The jump in the number of trades can also be explained by the same two products. Combos are small, frequent retail tickets with many priced below a cent. On the other hand, these 15-minute crypto contracts run 96 times a day for each asset.
Election Markets Remain a Rounding Error
Politics contracts made up about 0.06% of last week’s volume. Artemis shows a slight uptick in recent weeks, though activity sits far below the spikes above $75 million recorded over the past year. With Election Day set for Nov. 3, Kalshi’s record run is coming from parlays and crypto prices.
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