Kalshi Sign-Up Bonus & Welcome Offer: How the Referral Bonus Works | Review

Kalshi’s welcome offer for new traders is Trade $25, Get $25, as advertised in its own App Store listing. It runs through Kalshi’s referral program, so you need a referral code from an existing user, and it is open to traders from 18.

Trading event contracts involves risk of loss. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. Market availability depends on your location and pending litigation.

Kalshi welcome offer

The headline is simple: trade $25 and Kalshi adds $25. The mechanics sit in Kalshi’s referral program FAQ. It says bonus amounts vary by offer and can differ between the person referring and the person signing up. An amount advertised as “up to” is a ceiling, not a promise.

The qualifying activity and its deadline are listed in the offer itself under Your rewards, so read it before you place the qualifying trades. Deposits start at $10 for every method except wire.

Kalshi sign-up bonus: how to claim it

1. Open an account on the Kalshi app or website and verify your identity. You must be 18 or over.
2. Add a referral code within 72 hours of creating the account: Explore, then the menu icon, then Your rewards, then Have a code?, then Apply.
3. Deposit from $10. Debit card deposits can carry a fee of up to 2%.
4. Trade $25 on any market you like, within the deadline shown in the offer.
5. Collect the bonus once the qualifying trading is done; it appears under Your rewards.

The 72-hour clock starts when you create the account, not when your ID clears, and depositing or trading does not close it.

Kalshi promo code

Kalshi’s new-user bonus is tied to referral codes shared by existing users, entered under Your rewards. Kalshi has not issued a code to us.

Many codes circulate on sports sites and social media. We do not publish them, because they are influencer and affiliate codes rather than codes Kalshi has issued to us. If a friend already trades on Kalshi, their referral code is the cleanest way in.

Kalshi offer terms worth knowing

• 72-hour window to add a referral code, counted from account creation.
• Amounts vary by offer, and “up to” figures are maximums.
• Deadlines apply: qualifying activity has to be completed by the date shown in the offer.
• Location rules: court orders restrict Kalshi in Nevada and Washington, and its Massachusetts sports markets depend on a pending appeal.

Kalshi review

Kalshi is the prediction market that made the rest possible. The CFTC designated KalshiEX LLC as a contract market on November 4, 2020, making it the first federally regulated exchange built purely for event contracts. Its fight with state regulators has shaped what every rival can and cannot offer.

It remains the broadest app in the category: sports, elections, economic data, weather, culture and AI markets on one order book, open to traders from 18. The trade-offs are fees that bite on coin-flip prices and a patchwork of state restrictions driven by live litigation.

Kalshi at a glance

Feature	Detail
Operator	Kalshi Inc.; exchange KalshiEX LLC, San Francisco
CFTC status	Designated contract market since November 2020, with its own clearinghouse (Klear) and an affiliated FCM (Kalshi Prime)
Minimum age	18+
Markets	Sports, politics, economics, financials, weather, culture, crypto, tech and AI
Trading fee	Taker: 0.07 × contracts × price × (1 − price), rounded up
Minimum deposit	$10; $1,000 by wire
Withdrawals	Debit normally instant after security holds; ACH free
Platforms	iOS, Android and web

Who runs Kalshi, and how it is regulated

Kalshi was founded by Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara and runs out of San Francisco. Its regulatory page lists three pieces: Kalshi EX, the exchange; Klear, the clearinghouse; and Kalshi Prime LLC, a futures commission merchant.

That stack matters. As a designated contract market, Kalshi writes the rules for each contract, self-certifies them with the CFTC and settles trades itself. Brokers such as Robinhood also route customer orders to Kalshi’s book, which feeds extra volume into its biggest sports and election markets.

What the CFTC designation does not settle is whether states can treat sports contracts as gambling. That question is now in front of the Supreme Court, and it is the single biggest risk to the product.

Markets: what you can trade on Kalshi

Kalshi lists thousands of contracts, grouped into categories that reach well past sports.

• Sports: NFL, college football, NBA, MLB, NHL, soccer including the Champions League, tennis, golf and more, with game winners, spreads, totals and player markets.
• Economics: CPI prints, Fed rate decisions, jobs numbers and GDP.
• Politics: midterm races, control of Congress and policy outcomes.
• Weather and climate: daily high temperatures in major cities, hurricanes, snowfall.
• Tech and AI: a monthly “Top model” series settled on the Arena leaderboard, plus series on model releases and OpenAI milestones. Our AI prediction markets guide explains how they resolve.
• Culture: awards shows, streaming charts and box office.

Combo contracts, which bundle several outcomes into one position, are also available. They pay more because every leg has to land.

Kalshi fees, explained with real numbers

Kalshi publishes its formula in the official fee schedule (effective July 7, 2026). Takers, who hit an existing order, pay:

fee = round up(0.07 × contracts × price × (1 − price))

Makers, whose resting orders get filled, pay a quarter of that rate on markets where a maker fee applies. Canceling a resting order is free.

What that costs in practice

• 100 contracts at 50 cents: $1.75 in taker fees on a $50 position.
• 100 contracts at 90 cents: 63 cents on a $90 position.
• 100 contracts at 10 cents: 63 cents on a $10 position.

The fee is a bigger share of the stake on cheap contracts and largest in dollar terms near 50 cents. A handful of series, mostly long-dated political and crypto questions, carry no fee at all. Combo markets carry a higher maker multiplier.

Deposit and withdrawal fees

ACH deposits and withdrawals are free. Debit card deposits cost up to 2%, and wires carry no Kalshi fee, though your bank may charge. Crypto deposits can incur processor fees, shown before you confirm.

Signing up: age, ID and eligibility

You must be 18 or older and pass identity checks. Kalshi may ask for a document if its automated checks cannot verify you. One account per person is the rule, and Kalshi’s help center has a separate article on whether finance professionals can trade.

Location is checked at the point of trade. If you are standing in a state where a court has ordered Kalshi to block a category, those markets will not load, wherever your home address is.

Where Kalshi is available, and where it is not

Kalshi operates nationally, but three states stand out.

• Nevada. The Ninth Circuit ruled on August 28, 2026, that Nevada can enforce its gambling laws against Kalshi’s sports contracts.
• Washington. A King County Superior Court judge granted the state a preliminary injunction on August 12, 2026, ordering Kalshi to geofence sports, elections, politics, entertainment, culture, tech and science markets.
• Massachusetts. A judge ordered sports markets shut in January 2026, but the order is on hold while the Supreme Judicial Court hears Kalshi’s appeal.

Ohio and Tennessee won at the Sixth Circuit on September 25, and Kalshi has asked for rehearing. Arizona’s criminal case against the company was halted by a federal court. Our prediction market legal states tracker has every case and its current status.

Deposits and withdrawals

According to Kalshi’s transfers FAQ, US customers can fund an account by:

• Debit card, including Apple Pay and Google Pay
• ACH bank transfer
• PayPal, Venmo and Cash App
• Crypto
• Wire transfer ($1,000 minimum)

The minimum deposit is $10 for everything except wires. Withdrawals go back to your original method. Debit withdrawals are normally instant, though new deposits sit behind a security hold whose length depends on how you paid. Wires sent without your Kalshi memo code can be delayed or returned.

The Kalshi app

Kalshi runs on iOS, Android and the web, with the same order book behind all three. Each market shows the Yes and No price, a price chart, and the full rules, including the settlement source. Read that rules tab: it tells you exactly which data feed, leaderboard or official result decides your contract.

Kalshi’s help center runs a Responsible Trading Hub, and a demo account lets you practice with no money at risk.

A Kalshi trade, step by step

Say the Fed meets next week and you think it will hold rates. The “Fed holds” market shows Yes at 78 cents and No at 23 cents. The two prices add to $1.01; that extra cent is the spread between buyers and sellers.

1. Choose your order. Buying at 78 cents immediately makes you a taker. Posting a bid at 77 cents and waiting makes you a maker, and you may or may not be filled.
2. Size it. 200 contracts at 78 cents costs $156. The taker fee is 0.07 × 200 × 0.78 × 0.22, or about $2.41.
3. Manage it. If the price climbs to 90 cents after a dovish speech, you can sell and bank the move without waiting for the decision.
4. Settle. If the Fed holds, your 200 contracts pay $200, a profit of about $41.59 after the entry fee. If it cuts, you lose $158.41.

Each market’s rules name its settlement source before you trade, whether a Fed statement, an official box score or a government data release.

Taxes and documents

Kalshi issues tax documents through its Taxes & Documents section. Profits on event contracts are taxable, but how they are classified is not settled law, and the treatment can differ from sportsbook winnings. Speak to a tax professional about your own position.

Who Kalshi suits

• Multi-market traders who want sports, economics, weather and AI questions in one account.
• 18-to-20-year-olds who are locked out of 21+ apps and sportsbooks.
• Favorite and long-shot traders, who benefit most from the fee curve.

It suits coin-flip traders less well. If most of your positions sit between 40 and 60 cents, compare the cost against flat-fee rivals before committing.

How Kalshi compares

Against Polymarket US, Kalshi has the longer record and a wider category list that includes weather and economic data. Polymarket US makes makers pay nothing and waives fees on geopolitical markets. Against DraftKings Predictions, Kalshi is cheaper on heavy favorites and long shots, and still slightly cheaper near 50 cents, where its fee tops out at 1.75 cents against DraftKings’ flat two.

If you want to compare a Kalshi price with a sportsbook line, our odds converter turns cents into American odds in one step.

Our verdict on Kalshi

Kalshi is the benchmark. It has the most markets, the clearest fee rules and the deepest regulatory history in the category, and it accepts traders from 18. The weak spots are a fee curve that punishes coin-flip trading and a legal exposure that could change what you can trade in your state with little notice.

If you only open one prediction market account, this is the one we would start with.

Trading event contracts involves risk of loss. Market availability depends on your location and pending litigation. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.