Kalshi has formally notified the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that it intends to terminate its Volume Incentive Program no earlier than October 13.
The program distributed reward pools based on each participant’s share of eligible exchange volume. Kalshi originally described those payments as a way to improve liquidity and pricing efficiency.
The CFTC filing is a material update to the scrutiny surrounding Kalshi’s cryptocurrency derivatives. An outside analyst previously identified repeated trades near $5,500 and approximately $539 million of daily Ether perpetual volume against only $3.1 million in open interest. cftc.gov
Kalshi has denied that wash trading occurred. Its public explanation attributed the repeated sizing to market makers posting fixed quotes that faster traders repeatedly accepted.
The termination does not establish that the program caused manipulation or that regulators found a violation. Kalshi has also filed a separate deposit and trading reward program, so the complete incentive structure requires more analysis than the retirement of one rule.
September volume reached approximately $52.98 billion through September 29, exceeding the platform’s previous monthly record. Incentivized volume and organic risk transfer must be separated before that growth can be evaluated reliably.
TOKEN RECON ASSESSMENT
Ending the program removes one economic mechanism that may have encouraged high turnover, but it does not resolve the disputed trading history. The decisive evidence remains account-level data showing beneficial ownership, counterparty relationships and whether repeated trades transferred genuine market risk.
October 13 provides the first measurable test. If reported volume falls sharply after termination while open interest remains limited, the incentive program was materially shaping headline activity. If volume and open interest develop together, the market’s growth claim becomes more credible.
Sources
CFTC: Kalshi termination of Volume Incentive Program
