Kalshi Under Fire as Identical $5,500 Trades Raise Wash Trading Questions

Kalshi has come under scrutiny after thousands of identical $5,500 trades appeared in its ether futures market, with accusations surfacing that the exchange is padding its crypto trading volumes. Kalshi rejects the idea that it engaged in wash trading.

Kalshi operates as a US-regulated exchange under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), offering prediction markets as well as crypto-linked futures contracts introduced in June.

Wash Trading Allegations Center on a Single Order Size

Beni, a former quantitative trader and co-founder of research firm Stealth Neolab, examined trade records from Kalshi's public feed and found a single order size dominating the tape.

uh guys

I’ve been made aware that if @Kalshi itself participated in, directed, or knowingly incentivized the kind of activity described in my post below, it could potentially amount to fraud or market manipulation

Congratulations

We did it

(I am still not done tho) https://t.co/SC4OcbLN30

— Beni (@beniduboss) September 21, 2026

His count put roughly $539 million of 24-hour volume in the ether perpetual market against open interest of about $3.1 million. Open interest tracks the value of positions still open.

“On ETH the exact same $5500 trade size keeps appearing over and over again… it literally made up 48%-58% of ALL ETH PERP volume on 4 separate days,” said Beni.

Because the trading data shifts by the second, those numbers cannot be reconstructed exactly after the fact. Beni said he saved copies before going public.

Kalshi Claims Two Products Were Mixed Up

Kalshi's head of crypto, known online as IcoBeast, said Beni had confused prediction markets with crypto perpetual futures contracts.

“We don’t do rebates for crypto prediction markets… All exchanges run rebate and incentive programs to help provide better liquidity on the exchange for traders. CME does it. So does Hyperliquid and Binance,” they challenged.

IcoBeast also pushed back on claims that Kalshi hand-picks which firms can clear their own trades, insisting that fair access is required by regulation.

In a filing certified by the CFTC on 16 September, Kalshi updated its temporary rebate program for perps. The plan rebates crypto perp taker fees down to 0.003% of trade value for self-clearing members, while makers also net the same amount.

The same filing excludes fees on trades stemming from, or under investigation for, self-matching, wash trading or pre-arranged trading. Kalshi's chief regulatory officer holds the power to remove a firm from the program.

CFTC staff flagged broader risks in August, warning that steep volume-based rewards could drive participants to trade simply to hit targets.

No enforcement action has been announced against Kalshi over the allegations. Wash trading, which involves one party buying and selling with itself to fake activity, already violates US commodities law.

BeInCrypto reported in June that Kalshi's bitcoin perpetual market topped $1 billion in days, a figure its prediction markets took 40 months to reach.

Beni said lawyers are reviewing further material before he releases it.