Phantom is adding direct access to Kalshi prediction markets for eligible U.S. wallet users beginning October 23, bringing sports, elections and other event contracts into the crypto app while limiting categories in states where legal disputes have already constrained trading. The rollout is expected to expand over the coming weeks, rather than opening every market to every American user immediately.
The integration lets customers buy event contracts using funds from Phantom Cash, then receive proceeds from sales or winning positions back in their Cash accounts. Kalshi handles the regulated exchange, contract rules and settlement; Phantom provides the wallet interface and payment flow. U.S. users must pass Kalshi’s identity checks before trading.
More revealing than the convenience of placing a prediction inside a wallet is the commercial arrangement behind it. Phantom’s newly published disclosures say it receives a share of Kalshi’s exchange fees, can charge its own separate transaction fee and has agreed to give Kalshi prominent placement in the app for a period after launch. The company acknowledges that earning more when customers trade more creates a potential conflict of interest.
What Changes When Phantom Offers Kalshi Directly to U.S. Users?
The October 23 launch creates a dedicated route to Kalshi’s U.S.-regulated event contracts from Phantom’s mobile app. Users browse the Predict tab, select Yes or No on an event, review the current contract quote and fund their order without separately navigating Kalshi’s website.
Phantom’s U.S. trading guide says customers must first complete Kalshi identity verification. Depending on the checks required, they may be asked for a legal name, birth date, address, Social Security number, phone number and a government ID. This is not anonymous permissionless trading simply because it starts in a crypto wallet.
Kalshi remains responsible for market listings, contract rules, order execution, resolution and settlement. The wallet company facilitates the customer experience and transfer of funds. The formal relationship differs from some earlier Phantom prediction-market experiences involving tokenized markets through other Solana-based intermediaries.
Indeed, Phantom’s help center separately describes World Prediction Markets as powering its non-U.S. prediction experience. The new U.S. access is specifically a Kalshi account connection, not evidence that every worldwide Phantom user can trade Kalshi contracts under the same rules.
The rollout does not guarantee availability in every U.S. state or for every market category. Access depends on the user’s location, eligibility, verification and current restrictions imposed by the platform.
How Do CASH Deposits and Kalshi Payouts Move Through the App?
Phantom’s Cash account uses CASH, a dollar-pegged stablecoin associated with its payments ecosystem. The initial partnership announcement emphasizes funding predictions from that balance. Current official instructions also describe paying with supported Solana tokens, so CASH should not be treated as the only possible funding source in every version of the interface.
When a customer confirms a purchase, the funds are sent toward Kalshi, where they must become available before the event contracts can be bought. A debit from the wallet alone does not establish that an order executed or a position opened. The conversion and funding route is part of the user experience even if the eventual contract is denominated and settled through Kalshi’s regulated infrastructure.
If the customer sells an open position, available proceeds first arise at Kalshi and then return to Phantom Cash through Stripe. Winning contracts likewise generate settlement proceeds that Phantom initiates back to Cash. The payment transfer is separate from the trade or market resolution, so users can see a completed sale or win before their Cash balance updates.
Phantom says the transfer usually takes seconds to minutes. It also warns that additional verification can interrupt the process and that very small amounts may remain at Kalshi if they fall below a withdrawal minimum. A customer should not assume a displayed win automatically means spendable funds have already arrived.
The arrangement is not an insured bank deposit merely because its value is displayed in dollars. CASH is a stablecoin, the contract is a derivative whose value can fall to zero, and the eventual transfer back to the wallet involves payment intermediaries and their operational conditions.
What Are the Real Fees for Trading Prediction Contracts?
Phantom’s fee schedule describes a prediction fee of $0.02 per contract traded, split into $0.01 for Phantom and $0.01 for Kalshi. A purchase involving 10 contracts therefore produces $0.20 in quoted prediction fees, before any variable network charge.
The separate network fee covers moving funds to Kalshi and may incorporate token-account creation and gasless-service costs. Quotes should display the charges before the customer confirms a trade or cash-out. Selling contracts early can also carry trading costs, and the difference between buy and sell prices can make a position immediately worth less than its purchase price.
Consider a hypothetical purchase of 100 contracts at $0.40 each. The $40 contract cost would be accompanied by $2 in prediction fees at the stated rate, plus the applicable network charge. If the customer later sells the same quantity, fees and the then-prevailing bid price would affect the actual proceeds. This example is illustrative, not a current Kalshi quote.
There is also a second, separate commercial point. In its U.S. prediction-market disclosures dated October 22, Phantom says Kalshi shares part of the exchange fees it receives from trades routed through the wallet, while Phantom may charge additional commissions disclosed in the quote. The disclosed revenue-sharing arrangement should not be automatically added to the visible two-cent fee as if it were another customer surcharge.
The same disclosures say Phantom has committed to highlight Kalshi’s markets in the app after launch and expressly acknowledge the incentive created by earning revenue from trading activity. That transparency matters because an investor may see promoted events without knowing the precise financial interests behind their placement.
Which Markets Will Be Blocked in Michigan, Nevada and Washington?
Phantom plans to restrict sports contracts in Michigan; sports, elections, politics and entertainment contracts in Nevada; and those categories plus culture, science and technology, mentions and geopolitics in Washington, according to the rollout details reported by The Block. The restrictions are based on state-specific litigation and the product’s compliance decisions, and may change as proceedings continue.
The categories should not be read as a blanket national prohibition on prediction markets. Some financial, economic or other event contracts may remain available where a more limited category is blocked, subject to the app’s actual market list and customer eligibility.
Michigan courts have required Kalshi to prevent users in the state from trading sports contracts. Nevada’s court battle has also resulted in restrictions covering sports and certain other event categories. DaveFinances covered Kalshi’s Nevada appellate setback, where the dispute concerned whether federal derivatives law displaces state gambling authority.
Washington has pursued broad restrictions on certain event markets. Phantom’s decision to hide specified categories reflects its own distribution responsibilities as a connected software provider, rather than resolving the wider legal argument in Kalshi’s favor.
The company will also have to adapt if legal boundaries change. Utah’s October 20 lawsuit against Kalshi and two Susquehanna trading firms illustrates how additional states are expanding enforcement theories beyond the exchange operator itself. That separate case does not establish that Phantom has already blocked Utah users under the same category matrix.
Does Phantom’s CFTC No-Action Letter Override State Restrictions?
In March, the CFTC’s Market Participants Division issued a conditional no-action position relating to Phantom’s role as a self-custodial wallet software provider. Subject to conditions, staff said they would not recommend enforcement solely because Phantom did not register as an introducing broker or an associated person while facilitating trades through registered market participants.
The scope is narrower than unrestricted permission to operate any kind of prediction market everywhere. The letter concerns specific federal registration requirements and software activities. It is not a court ruling that preempts state gaming law, a wholesale exemption from consumer obligations or a guarantee that Kalshi contracts are legal in every jurisdiction.
On September 17, the CFTC extended similar no-action treatment to providers of passive trading software that satisfy the applicable conditions. That reinforces an emerging federal approach to wallet integrations but does not decide litigation involving Michigan, Nevada or Washington.
General Counsel Kevin Jacobs told The Block that Phantom believes CFTC jurisdiction is clear and is comfortable proceeding while respecting the relevant restrictions. That is the company’s legal position, not a final nationwide judicial determination.
Kalshi’s state disputes have already created tensions even over the treatment of positions executed before access restrictions. A previous Michigan case involving the CFTC highlighted why preserving existing contracts and preventing new trades are distinct legal and operational problems.
What Does This Mean for Kalshi’s Growth and Phantom Users?
The commercial appeal is straightforward: placing event contracts inside a popular wallet lowers the number of interfaces a customer must use and makes stablecoin balances available for a new kind of trading. Kalshi gains another channel for distribution, while Phantom gains fees and the opportunity to increase activity within its own app.
But ease of entry can also increase the risk of impulsive trading. A Yes or No contract commonly pays either $1 or $0 at resolution, so a wrong prediction can cost the entire purchase amount plus trading charges. Early exit requires a willing buyer, and a displayed estimated position value is not a guaranteed cash-out price.
Technical risks also remain. Phantom says some positions are represented by Solana tokens; accidentally burning relevant outcome tokens can permanently destroy the ability to redeem through the app. Contract outcomes and related disputes are determined by Kalshi, not by Phantom’s wallet support team.
The Block cited more than $291 billion in year-to-date Kalshi trading volume and October turnover of roughly $55.33 billion at the time of its report. Those figures reflect activity on the broader exchange, not customer demand generated by Phantom’s new integration, and trading volume should not be confused with revenue or net customer deposits.
For investors, the measurable milestones are the number of U.S. wallets that complete Kalshi verification, contracts actually traded through Phantom, total fee revenue retained by each partner and the reliability of funding and withdrawal operations. None of those integration-specific outcomes has been disclosed at launch.
The October 23 rollout thus brings a federally regulated prediction exchange into a self-custodial crypto app, but it does so through verified accounts, restricted categories, explicit transaction charges and a fee-sharing relationship. The most important question is whether the convenience of wallet-based trading can coexist with clear customer safeguards as the state-by-state legal framework continues to change.
Johan Shamshad is a financial markets writer at Dave Finances covering cryptocurrencies, trading platforms, brokers, fintech, financial regulation, and developments across global markets. He previously worked at Gulf News, adding newsroom experience to his coverage of fast-moving financial and digital-asset markets.
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