Kalshi, the first prediction market platform regulated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), has introduced KalshiEco Hub in partnership with Solana and Coinbase’s Base network. The initiative is designed to stimulate innovation in blockchain-based prediction markets by providing grants, technical expertise, and promotional assistance to developers, traders, and content creators.
The new hub marks Kalshi’s entry into blockchain development, following its establishment as a platform that enables users to trade contracts on real-world outcomes, ranging from political events to economic data releases. Kalshi aims to leverage its regulatory status while combining it with blockchain-native infrastructure from two major networks. Solana contributes high-speed transaction capacity of up to 65,000 transactions per second, while Base brings layer-2 technology focused on reducing costs and boosting scalability.
Support for Builders and Early Collaborators
The KalshiEco Hub extends various forms of support to participants in its ecosystem. These include financial grants to developers, project-building technical aid, and marketing support for selected initiatives. Early contributors include Kalshinomics, which offers a dashboard for market analytics, and Verso, a company focused on professional trading tools for market discovery.
In addition, Kalshi announced direct deposit support for Solana’s native token, SOL, with account funding limits set at $500,000. This expands upon the company’s existing digital asset support, which already includes Bitcoin, USDC, and Worldcoin, integrated through regulatory compliance partner Zero Hash.
Closing the Gap with Rivals
The launch comes as Kalshi continues to gain ground against its competitor Polymarket. Industry figures showed that in the previous month, Kalshi registered $875 million in trading volume compared with Polymarket’s $1 billion. The platform’s growth has been noteworthy, with monthly trading volumes at $13 million in early 2025 and peaks of $26 million in October 2024. Revenue growth reached 1,220% last year, while the firm raised $185 million in a Series C round led by Paradigm and Sequoia, valuing the company at $2 billion. Reports further suggested that Kalshi may soon raise funds at a $5 billion valuation, while Polymarket recently closed a $200 million round at a $1 billion valuation.
Benefits for Solana and Institutional Adoption
The collaboration is also significant for Solana, which has been seeking to expand beyond decentralized exchanges and meme coin trading—segments that made up 65% of its trading activity in May 2025. The integration enables SOL holders to participate directly in prediction markets without first converting assets into stablecoins, potentially increasing liquidity and utility.
Introducing @KalshiEco: a hub to support builders, traders, and creators pushing the frontier of prediction markets.
We’re backing offchain and onchain innovation, with dedicated grants partnering with @Solana and @Base.
Come join us in building the future of trading the future. pic.twitter.com/maeSBMhSmP— Kalshi (@Kalshi) September 17, 2025
Institutional participation in Solana has already been growing. During the second quarter of 2025, the network attracted $1.4 billion in institutional inflows, while public companies staked 1.9 million SOL valued at $320.4 million. Solana’s DeFi ecosystem reported $8.6 billion in total value locked, supported by the launch of the first U.S. Solana staking ETF and significant corporate treasury holdings worth nearly $1 billion.
Maintaining a Regulatory Edge
Kalshi’s position as a regulated entity provides it with an advantage in a sector where state authorities continue to scrutinize prediction markets. The platform holds CFTC approval across all 50 states, giving it credibility with institutional investors in contrast to unregulated competitors.
The company has also been strengthening its crypto presence, hiring digital asset influencer John Wang as head of crypto and forming partnerships with Robinhood for football market predictions as well as with World App for Worldcoin user integration. Coinbase Ventures’ leadership recently indicated that prediction markets could emerge as a major blockchain use case given the expansion of decentralized finance, the adoption of stablecoins, and the reliability of smart contract frameworks.
Future Outlook for Prediction Markets
Despite growing interest, prediction markets face regulatory uncertainty, with some state regulators questioning whether event contracts amount to gambling rather than financial products. Even so, Kalshi’s launch of the KalshiEco Hub places it at the intersection of decentralized finance and regulatory oversight, focusing on analytics, professional tools, and enhanced retail participation.
The platform’s data from late 2024 suggested that market-based forecasting could often be more accurate than traditional polling. For instance, it had assigned a 91% probability to Bitcoin reaching $100,000 by the end of that year, underlining its role in reflecting market sentiment.
Kalshi’s strategy with this initiative underscores its belief that prediction markets could become a central blockchain application. By merging regulatory compliance with crypto-native infrastructure, the company positions itself to shape the future of regulated prediction markets while seeking to establish standards for integrating traditional finance with decentralized systems.
