Accusations Emerge Against Kalshi Over Repeated Ether Futures Trades
Kalshi, a U.S.-regulated crypto exchange operating under the CFTC, is facing claims of wash trading due to thousands of identical $5,500 ether perpetual trades. Researcher Beni analyzed trade data and found that these repeated orders made up nearly half of all volume in four days on Kalshi's ETH perpetual market. The high volume compared to low open interest raised concerns about inflated activity. Kalshi responded by stating the confusion stemmed from mixing prediction markets with crypto futures, noting they do not offer rebates for the former and that their rebate program is standard across exchanges like CME or Binance. They also clarified self-clearing access is regulated and not handpicked. A recent filing updated fee structures but excluded trades under investigation. Wash trading—where a party trades with itself to simulate activity—is illegal in U.S. commodities law, though no enforcement action has been announced against Kalshi yet.
Topics: crypto futures trading regulation volume manipulation