Kalshi, the CFTC-regulated prediction-market platform, is facing public accusations that its crypto perpetual-futures activity is inflated. The claims originated with Beni, a former quant and co-founder of Stealth Neolab, who published a detailed thread on X after a heated exchange with Kalshi’s crypto product lead.
Beni focused on Kalshi’s ether perpetual contract.
At the time of his screenshots, the market showed about $538.6 million in 24-hour volume against roughly $3.1 million in open interest.
That implied the entire outstanding position base was turning over 174 times per day, or once every eight minutes and 18 seconds.
He treated the ratio as a classic red flag for wash trading: repeated buying and selling that boosts headline turnover while little genuine risk stays on the book.
He also pointed to Kalshi’s public position leaderboard, which listed the largest ether-perp holding at only $17,598.
A market generating hundreds of millions in daily volume with such small visible positions, he argued, does not look organic.
A follow-up post highlighted another pattern: the same $5,500 trade size appearing again and again.
On four separate days that single lot size accounted for 48–58 percent of all ether-perp volume.
Beni called the repetition “undeniable proof” of manufactured activity and said he had archived the data in case it later disappeared.
He tied the incentives to a CFTC filing.
Eligible self-clearing members can receive a 0.3-basis-point maker rebate while takers pay 0.3 basis points, producing a net-zero fee on some trades.
When trading against oneself costs almost nothing, he said, the temptation to pad volume rises.
He also cited a reported Jump Trading arrangement in which liquidity provision was linked to an equity stake, creating, in his view, an extra motive to make the numbers look strong.
Beni further criticized how Kalshi presents prediction-market volume.
This thread is 100% gonna blow up and I am gonna look like a salty c****again but @icobeast pissed me off so now it's gonna get ugly
Kalshi fakes their crypto volume and I can prove it
NOTHING pisses me off more than watching a company treat its own customers like complete… https://t.co/1LWMVGVaeU
— Beni (@beniduboss) September 19, 2026
The platform’s glossary defines volume as the number of contracts traded, yet the interface displays that count with a dollar sign.
A trader who spends $30,000 to buy 100,000 contracts priced at 30 cents therefore sees $100,000 reported as volume.
Kalshi’s crypto lead, IcoBeast.eth, replied that the critic had mixed products.
An Artemis chart used in the original complaint measured prediction-market share, not perpetual volume.
Kalshi does not offer the cited rebate program on its crypto event contracts.
Volume reporting follows the same notional-payout convention used by other prediction platforms: each contract is worth $1 at settlement, so headline figures reflect maximum potential payout rather than cash laid out.
On perpetuals, IcoBeast said self-clearing membership is open to any firm that meets regulatory capital and operational tests; “fair access” is required by CFTC rules.
Incentive programs must be filed publicly, unlike private deals common at offshore venues.
Suspected wash trades and self-matching are excluded from rebates.
No regulator has announced an enforcement action tied to the ether-perp claims.
The dispute remains an allegation backed by public screenshots and filings, met by Kalshi’s explanation of product differences and reporting conventions. The episode has nonetheless put a spotlight on how notional metrics and early-stage US perpetual products can produce eye-catching ratios that invite scrutiny.
