Kalshi sold about $200 million in US elections, says CEO

Tarek Mansour, CEO of Kalshi Financial Exchange and Forecasting Market, has seen significant growth for his company in the run-up to the 2024 presidential elections.

Since Kalshi received approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to trade contracts at events in early October, the company has taken in nearly $200 million in U.S. presidential election trades, Mansour shared with CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

Mansour said the “demand curve is really exponential” regarding his company’s meteoric rise in popularity. The app has risen to number one in the Apple App Store’s Finance category, displacing the long-running Cash App. He also mentioned that Kalshi has made it to the top 10 in the App Store rankings and at the time of writing, the app is ranked 7th.

“I think we’re aiming to be number one on the App Store by Election Day,” Mansour said.

The US elections played a crucial role in Kalshi reaching a “critical mass” of people using the platform. Mansour believes the influx of customers using the trading platform will continue to fuel its growth and success after the November election.

The average amount sold at the Kalshi election markets is between $300 and $400. However, many bids reach seven figures, and the online trading platform can support them without changing prices due to its liquidity.

Rival trading platform Robinhood launched its election contracts on Monday.

What is Kalshi?

Kalshi is a regulated financial exchange specializing in contracts for trading events. It was the first operator to receive approval in the US, and during conversations with Squawk Box, Mansour emphasized that the site only accepts trade from American players. The US elections are attracting worldwide attention.

Essentially, event contracts allow clients to place a bet on whether a specific event will occur and pay based on the likelihood of that event occurring. For example, in the 2024 presidential election, there are markets for Donald Trump or Kamala Harris to win.

However, Kalshi also has a number of other election trading markets, including which presidential candidate will win each state and where control of the House and Senate will shift.

A look at the 2024 elections

With so much money being spent on the 2024 presidential election in Kalshi, Mansoor shared some insights that provide insight into public opinion. He explained that while the average bet on Harris is slightly larger than on Trump, more clients are backing the Republican candidate to win the election.

However, Mansour also explained how people should read the US election odds displayed in Kalshi as “people confuse the odds these markets give us with the polls.”

For example, he suggested that if Trump were to gain 20 points in the polls, he would have a 100% chance of winning the election. However, if he has a 70% chance of winning the Kalshi elections, then he actually has a 70% chance of winning.

While Kalshi has gained public attention ahead of the 2024 presidential election, Mansour believes news outlets and other media companies will continue to take the results into account when preparing for upcoming events, as the “market mechanism” provides insight into what is happening overall. the population thinks.

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