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Phantom turns on Kalshi prediction markets for US users

Phantom's US rollout funds Kalshi event contracts from in-app CASH balances; sports, elections and more are carved out in Michigan, Nevada and Washington.

by 4 min read
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Phantom opened its Kalshi-powered prediction markets to US users on Friday, October 23, 2026, letting KYC-verified wallet holders trade CFTC-regulated event contracts from their in-app Cash accounts. The staged rollout starts today and expands over the following weeks, per The Block.

What happened

  • Phantom's US users can now place bets on Kalshi event contracts without leaving the wallet. Access requires KYC completed on Kalshi.
  • Trades are funded with CASH, Phantom's dollar-pegged stablecoin, held in Phantom Cash accounts. Funds move to Kalshi and are converted to fiat for settlement; winnings and cash-outs return as CASH to the Phantom Cash balance.
  • Fees are $0.02 per contract plus a small network fee for the funds movement to Kalshi. Phantom shows a per-trade breakdown before confirmation.
  • Phantom General Counsel Kevin Jacobs told The Block that more funding options are planned: "more ways to pay are coming soon."

The regulatory basis

Phantom is relying on a conditional no-action letter the CFTC issued in March 2026, which relieves it from registering as a broker for distributing Kalshi contracts. The CFTC extended that relief to additional software providers in September. Jacobs on Kalshi's position: "Our perspective is that the CFTC's jurisdiction here is clear."

Kalshi, for its part, is making its full market catalog available to Phantom; Phantom decides which markets surface in-app, per Max Crowley, Kalshi's VP of business development. Crowley declined to comment on the pending state cases.

State carve-outs at launch

Phantom is blocking specific categories per state while the preemption disputes continue:

- Michigan   : sports blocked
- Nevada     : sports, elections, politics, entertainment blocked
- Washington : sports, elections, politics, entertainment, culture,
               science & tech, mentions, geopolitics blocked

The Nevada list cites a Ninth Circuit ruling against Kalshi; a separate Utah case is also open. Jacobs told The Block Phantom will comply with the state restrictions while the suits play out and "expects the Supreme Court to decide the matter eventually." Phantom's own language on today's rollout: "we are confident and comfortable engaging in this activity" within the no-action position.

Why it matters

Phantom claims north of 20 million users globally; the Kalshi integration is the first time a self-custodial crypto wallet brings a CFTC-regulated prediction market inside the app under its own CFTC relief letter. That changes the surface area for state regulators: the complainant previously had an exchange to pursue; now a wallet with a stablecoin and a payments stack is squarely inside the dispute.

The move also puts CASH into one of the few high-volume consumer rails crypto has built in the US this cycle. Robinhood this morning disclosed that bitcoin and gold prediction-market volume on its own venue is now outpacing sports, per CoinDesk. Phantom is late to the US party but arrives with on-chain-native plumbing.

What to watch

  1. Which state attorneys general move next. Nevada and Utah are already in; the question is whether another state opens a parallel action now that a wallet is in-scope.
  2. The Supreme Court path. Jacobs' comment is a tell — Phantom's product strategy assumes a cert grant on the preemption question. The Ninth Circuit Kalshi ruling is the vehicle most likely to tee that up.
  3. CASH volumes on-chain. Phantom hasn't published Cash-account AUM. If the Kalshi flow pulls stablecoin balances into Phantom, that shows up in Solana stablecoin issuance against competing wallet rails.
  4. Market-selection policy. Phantom now chooses which Kalshi markets to display. Which categories make it into the app (and which get quietly hidden) will become its own regulatory flashpoint.

Context

Kalshi's expansion through third-party distributors is the pattern of the quarter: Robinhood, CBS News earlier this month, now Phantom. The Taiwan ruling against a Coinbase-fronted Kalshi election product (covered in our August piece) showed how foreign venues respond; the US cases will test whether CFTC jurisdiction preempts state gambling law here.

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