Trump Jr. Joins Betting Market Kalshi as Adviser

The US president-elect's son has announced he will be joining the betting prediction market, Kalshi, as an advisor.

Donald Trump, Jr. made the announcement on Monday.

Kalshi Inc. is an American financial exchange and prediction market based in Lower Manhattan, New York City, offering event contracts. Launched in July 2021, it offers a platform where both retail and institutional traders can place trades on various future events, including economic indicators, weather patterns, awards, as well as political and legislative outcomes.

Kalshi claims to be regulated as a Designated Contract Market under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). 

Per the Kalshi website:

"A Designated Contract Market is a financial exchange designated to trade futures, swaps, and options on commodities.This means Kalshi must abide by all the regulations and rules set by the CFTC.Kalshi is one of the only financial exchanges centered around trading directly on events that is regulated by the CFTC."

The CEO of one of Kalshi's primary competitors, Polymarket, saw the FBI raid his New York City home back in November.  It remains unclear as to why federal authorities took such action against Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan.

“On Election night at Mar-a-Lago, while biased outlets called the race a coin toss, my family and close friends used the prediction market @Kalshi to know we won hours ahead of the fake news media,” Trump Jr. wrote in a post on the social platform X.

From TheHill.com:

Trump Jr. advises his father, President-elect Trump, and is influential within the MAGA movement.

“I immediately knew I had to contribute to their mission. Today, I am proud to announce that I am joining Kalshi as a strategic advisor,” Trump Jr. posted, quipping that it was time to bet on “whether Biden is going to pardon Fauci and Liz Cheney.”

Kalshi was at the center of a legal fight earlier this year as courts weighed whether to allow betting on the 2024 federal elections. A federal appeals court in October declined to block a lower court’s decision allowing Kalshi to offer betting markets on federal elections.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission had asked the appeals court to block Kalshi from allowing buyers to bet on which political party will control the House and the Senate after the upcoming election, arguing it undermined election integrity.