Donald Trump Jr. joins Kalshi as strategic adviser

Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of President-elect Donald Trump, has joined the prediction market platform Kalshi as a strategic advisor.

Kalshi operates as the primary and solely authorized prediction market in the USA overseen by the Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee (CFTC).

The platform provides contracts on real-world occasions, together with elections, financial outcomes and social matters.

Kalshi gained a whole lot of consideration through the current elections, when merchants used the yes-or-no contracts to invest on whether or not Kamala Harris or Donald Trump would win the presidency.

On the eve of the election, Kalshi bettors estimated Trump’s possibilities of victory at 55% – a prediction that turned out to be appropriate.

The exact prediction in such a detailed race strengthened the credibility of the prediction markets.

To extend the platform’s visibility, Donald Trump Jr. commented on his addition to the Kalshi staff in a put up on X.

“On election night time at Mar-a-Lago, as biased media known as the race a coin toss, my household and shut associates used the Kalshi prediction market to know we had gained hours earlier than the faux information media,” he wrote. “I instantly knew that I needed to contribute to their mission.”

Kalshi’s contracts usually replicate real-world political and social dynamics.

Probably the most lively current contracts was a yes-or-no wager on whether or not there could be at the least half 1,000,000 immigrant deportations through the first 12 months of the Trump administration, with bettors estimating a 53% chance.

The platform faces stiff competitors from offshore operators similar to Polymarket, which maintains larger buying and selling volumes however operates outdoors CFTC rules.

Regardless of its unregulated standing, Polymarket has tried to construct a compliant US market, even hiring former CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo, often called “CryptoDad,” since 2022.

Based on Reuters, Polymarket recorded greater than $3.1 billion in buying and selling quantity based mostly on presidential election bets, in comparison with Kalshi’s $197 million in buying and selling quantity based mostly on his election outcomes contracts.

Kalshi has not restricted his provide to election-related contracts.

The platform has additionally launched betting on unconventional matters, similar to whether or not Donald Trump would purchase a part of Greenland.

One other notable contract speculated on whether or not Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg would attend Trump’s inauguration.