Kalshi faces wash-trading claims over crypto volume

Kalshi has faced fresh wash-trading allegations after trader Beni cited roughly $538.6 million in 24-hour ETH-PERP volume against approximately $3.1 million in open interest, while the exchange’s crypto lead disputed the claims and pointed to differences between prediction markets and perpetual futures. Summary Kalshi’s September filing sets crypto perpetual takers at 0.3 basis points after applicable rebate adjustments. The same program rebates makers so eligible participants net 0.3 basis points on crypto perps. Kalshi excludes suspected wash trades, self-matching, and pre-arranged trades from receiving rebates under the program. Beni cited $538.6 million ETH perpetual volume against roughly $3.1 million open interest during questioning. Kalshi’s crypto lead denied fake-volume claims and said prediction markets have no crypto-specific rebate program. Beni’s Sept. 20 thread on X argued that the reported ETH perpetual turnover appeared unusually large compared with open interest. He calculated the ratio at roughly 174 times and cited a Kalshi position leaderboard that he said showed its largest position at $17,598 at the time of his screenshots. The figures in Beni’s screenshots could not be independently reconstructed from Kalshi’s current public pages because trading data changes continuously. No CFTC enforcement action reviewed as of Sept. 21 has accused Kalshi of wash trading in its crypto perpetual markets. The regulator’s current Kalshi-related release index contains no public case matching the ETH-PERP allegations. You might also like: Kalshi seeks CFTC approval for stock perpetuals Beni wrote, “Kalshi fakes their crypto volume and I can prove it.” His posts present that statement as an allegation. They do not establish through an enforcement finding, exchange audit or identified trading accounts that wash trades occurred. Kalshi rebate filing puts crypto perps under scrutiny A separate part of Beni’s argument focused on Kalshi’s temporary perpetual fee rebate program, which can be checked against the exchange’s official regulatory filing. Kalshi submitted its latest program update to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Sept. 2. The filing was certified on Sept. 16, according to the CFTC filing database. Kalshi said the program applies to all of its perpetual markets, including cryptocurrency and metals contracts, and remains scheduled to run through Dec. 31 unless amended or ended sooner. For cryptocurrency perpetuals, eligible taker fees are rebated down to 0.3 basis points, or 0.003%. Eligible makers receive rebates that leave them with a net 0.3-basis-point payment. The terms define eligible participants as all Kalshi Self-Clearing Members. Beni cited the positive maker rebate and reduced taker charge to argue that matched trading could face little or no combined fee cost. Kalshi’s filing addresses that structure directly: payments must be reduced when overlapping incentive programs would produce net-negative combined maker and taker fees on an individual trade.