This Prediction Market Startup Got Busted For Sketchy Influencer Ads (Surprise)

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If you’ve ever scrolled TikTok at 2 a.m. and watched some 22-year-old in an oversized hoodie gush about how “predicting election results paid for my new iPhone and a weekend in Miami,” you already know exactly what this mess is about.

The Better Business Bureau’s National Advertising Division has officially referred Kalshi, the prediction market platform, to regulatory authorities, after Kalshi straight up declined to show up for a review of their influencer advertising practices. Shocking, I know, that a company making bank off people betting on whether it will rain at the Kentucky Derby wouldn’t want to talk about how they market to teens.

they weren’t.

Separate scrutiny has also emerged from Media Matters for America, a nonprofit media watchdog organization that spends all day yelling at cable news for being terrible. According to Media Matters, Kalshi’s marketing campaigns on TikTok and Instagram helped popularize prediction trading among younger audiences, with some content presenting participation on the platform as a potential “side hustle” – the same lie my cousin told me when he tried to get me to join his essential oil pyramid scheme in 2019.

The latest referral adds another compliance issue for Kalshi as prediction markets continue drawing attention from regulators and policymakers. The company has already faced questions surrounding the regulatory treatment of event contracts, while some critics have raised concerns about market integrity and allegations of insider trading within the broader prediction market sector.

Kalshi Is Acting Like None Of This Is Happening While Launching New Crypto Stuff

Even as the advertising review moves toward regulators, Kalshi has continued expanding its crypto-related offerings like they didn’t just get called out for predatory marketing.

A day after the BBB announcement, Kalshi revealed that it had filed with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission to list perpetual futures tied to Hyperliquid’s HYPE token, a name that sounds like the kind of energy drink my little brother chugs before playing Call of Duty until 4 a.m. The proposed contract joins a growing list of cryptocurrency derivatives products the company is seeking to bring to U.S. traders.

The filing follows Kalshi’s recent launch of Ethereum perpetual futures under its “American Perpetuals” brand, a name so boring it makes me want to take a nap. As crypto.news reported on June 4, Ethereum became the second cryptocurrency available through the platform’s perpetual futures lineup after the earlier introduction of Bitcoin perpetual futures.

Several additional contracts linked to cryptocurrencies, including XRP, Solana, Dogecoin, Stellar, Shiba Inu, and Hedera, remain under separate regulatory review, which is the financial version of waiting in line at the DMV, but with more people yelling about market manipulation.

Strong user growth has continued alongside the company’s product expansion. In comments reported by Bloomberg, a Kalshi spokesperson said the platform is tracking toward a $1.5 billion annualized revenue run rate, a number so big I immediately wondered how much of it is coming from people betting on whether Taylor Swift will bring out a surprise album at her next Eras Tour stop.

Bloomberg also reported that investor demand recently supported a $1 billion funding round that valued the company at $22 billion, which is more money than I’ll make in 12 lifetimes, and they still couldn’t be bothered to make sure their influencers disclosed they were getting paid. Wild.

Those growth figures arrive as prediction markets gain traction among both retail and institutional participants, despite ongoing disagreements between state regulators and the CFTC over the oversight of event-based contracts. It’s the kind of chaos you only get when you mix money, the internet, and a bunch of people who think “regulatory gray area” is a fun challenge, not a flashing red stop sign.

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2026-06-09 21:04