Community users are questioning Kalshi over alleged falsified crypto trading volumes, claiming the daily trading volume of ETH-PERP is 174 times its open interest.

Quantitative analyst Beni posted a critique questioning prediction market platform Kalshi of artificially inflating its crypto trading volume, citing multiple data points as evidence. Beni noted that Kalshi’s ETH-PERP has an open interest of roughly $3.1 million, yet its 24-hour trading volume reaches $538.6 million — meaning all open positions turn over approximately 174 times daily, or an average of once every 8 minutes and 18 seconds. He also pointed out that Kalshi’s position leaderboard shows the largest single ETH-PERP position is only around $17,600, a clear discrepancy with the stated volume scale. Additionally, Kalshi’s prior filing with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) reveals that eligible Self-Clearing Member (SCM) market makers receive a 0.3 basis point rebate, while takers pay 0.3 basis points, resulting in a total trading cost of 0 basis points. Beni further mentioned that Kalshi had a liquidity-for-equity partnership with Jump Trading, leading him to question whether there is motivation to boost the platform’s volume metrics. He also challenged Kalshi’s volume calculation methodology, stating that the platform counts “number of traded contracts” as volume and displays it with a dollar sign, which may mislead users about actual transaction amounts. All claims originate from Beni’s personal posts; they represent his doubts about Kalshi’s trading data and business model, and do not equate to proven volume manipulation or wash trading on Kalshi’s part.