Kalshi CEO rules out 2026 IPO despite $2 billion revenue run rate

Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour has reportedly confirmed that the prediction market operator will not go public this year, even as the company’s annualized revenue has crossed $2 billion and its private valuation sits at $22 billion.

The company has reportedly held informal conversations with investment banks about a future listing. But people close to Kalshi’s finances say that a public offering would not come before late 2027 or early 2028 at the earliest.

What is Kalshi’s revenue performance since 2025?

Kalshi’s $2 billion annualized revenue figure is nearly a threefold increase from where the company stood in November 2025. 

Sports prediction contracts have been the primary driver for this surge in revenue, with the NBA playoffs and the FIFA World Cup being responsible for most of the recent activities. 

Monthly trading volume on the platform hit $16.81 billion in May 2026, a 13.5% increase over April. 

During the opening week of the FIFA World Cup, Kalshi recorded $5.1 billion in weekly spot volume, which is the largest single-week total any individual prediction platform has recorded.

Institutional trading volume on the platform also grew 800% in the six months through early May, pushing annualized trading volume from $52 billion to $178 billion.

How much has Kalshi raised pre-IPO?

The IPO timeline discussion follows a fundraising streak for Kalshi, which closed a $1 billion round in May 2026. That round was led by Coatue, with Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, IVP, Paradigm, Morgan Stanley, and ARK Invest among the participants.

The company has raised $2.685 billion across five rounds since June 2025.

State lawsuits continue to play spoiler

The regulatory drama around Kalshi and other prediction markets has become something of a weekly feature. 

Just this week, Kentucky filed a suit against Kalshi and Polymarket, alleging that they are operating unlicensed sports betting platforms. 

It joins Ohio, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, and Illinois, among others, to have made similar claims in court.

The CFTC has also been consistent with inserting itself into those proceedings, suing New Mexico after the state moved against Kalshi and arguing that federally regulated event contracts fall under its exclusive jurisdiction. 

A New Jersey court sided with Kalshi in April 2026. However, the jurisdictional question is widely expected to reach the Supreme Court.

Gaming industry groups, including the American Gaming Association and the Indian Gaming Association, have lobbied Congress to add language to the CLARITY Act that would bar sports prediction markets from operating under federal derivatives rules.

Some estimates place sports contracts at up to 90% of Kalshi’s revenue, so the stakes are high for the platform.

Is the crypto IPO market cooling down?

Kalshi is not the only crypto-adjacent firm to postpone or shelve IPO plans in 2026. Many went into the year bullish on the possibility of listing, buoyed by the crypto-market performance in 2025 and the White House’s current pro-crypto stance.

However, the current market realities have made some firms have a rethink. Consensys, the company behind MetaMask, pushed its IPO to at least fall 2026. 

Kraken has also suspended its own billion-dollar offering after confidentially filing with the SEC in late 2025. French hardware wallet maker Ledger also paused a planned $4 billion listing.

For now, BitGo remains the only crypto-native company to complete a U.S. IPO this year. As of mid-May, BitGo’s shares traded roughly 36% below the $18 offering price.

Bitcoin itself has lost about a third of its value in 2026, trading below $60,000 as of June 24, after hitting record highs above $122,000 late last year. Bitcoin ETFs have seen over $3.1 billion in net outflows this year, with more capital going toward AI and semiconductor stocks.

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