Kalshi’s $400 million-plus monthly commodity trade volume outpaces early crypto growth

On Tuesday, Sept. 8, prediction-market startup Kalshi said that monthly commodities trading volume on its platform was four times that of cryptocurrency at the same point, seven months after launch.

Further details follow.

Commodity trading recorded more than $400 million in monthly volume, according to the company.

A boom in retail trading pushed Kalshi to adopt commodity prediction markets in products such as oil, gas and metals.

The strong performance, which showcases appetite for these contracts, has helped Kalshi explore newer asset classes and lift trading volumes.

Crypto showed that new categories can scale from tens of millions to billions in monthly volume. Commodities’ significantly faster ramp demonstrates that Kalshi’s ability to launch and scale new markets is accelerating, the company said.

Kalshi also generated a revenue windfall, with trading volumes far exceeding the levels the company had estimated from the 2026 FIFA World Cup partnership.

In an interview with Reuters, co-founder Tarek Mansour said the commodities trading business benefited from improved liquidity on the platform.

Mansour said liquidity is difficult to get off the ground because it requires many active participants, so that every time a Kalshi user wants to enter a position, they can enter it, and whenever they want to exit that position, they can exit it.

The diverse and large participation pool made that possible, allowing the company to start new categories much faster, Mansour added.

Kalshi is also rapidly exploring perpetual futures contracts across asset classes, having filed for equity indexes, metals and WTI crude oil, after similar cryptocurrency investment vehicles were approved by regulators earlier this year.