Polymarket turned the future into a constantly repriced feed. Its bigger wager is that a market price can become as familiar - and as useful - as a poll, a pundit or a breaking-news alert.
Kalshi is a New York-based, CFTC-regulated financial exchange where people trade contracts on the outcomes of real-world events - elections, economic data, sports, weather, corporate events and culture. Founded in 2018 by MIT classmates and former quant traders Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara, it became the first U.S. exchange federally approved to list event contracts. By 2026 it accounts for the large majority of U.S. prediction-market activity, has raised roughly $2.6 billion across its rounds, and was valued at $22 billion after a $1 billion Series F.
Tarek Mansour is the co-founder and CEO of Kalshi, the first CFTC-regulated exchange for trading on the outcomes of real-world events. A Lebanese-American MIT graduate and former Goldman Sachs and Citadel trader, he turned a regulatory fight into a multibillion-dollar prediction market that lets anyone trade on elections, weather, economics and culture. In May 2026 Kalshi raised $1 billion in a Series F at a $22 billion valuation and became the first American firm to offer crypto perpetual futures under federal regulation.