Your crypto wallet just turned into a betting window — and 20 million Phantom users are the reason that matters. On Wednesday, Phantom switched on Kalshi prediction markets for qualifying US users, with Bitcoin price bets that settle every 15 minutes and Kalshi's crypto contracts running at $10.8 billion in the last 30 days.
Key points:
- Phantom's new Predict tab lets qualifying US users bet on Bitcoin prices, sports, politics and more, all inside the wallet app.
- Kalshi runs the trades and checks who you are, while Phantom just puts the markets in front of its 20 million users.
- The catch is the law: states are still fighting Kalshi in court, so not every market shows up in every state.
It works a lot like a token swap. Users open the new Predict tab, see live prices, sports scores and a chat for each market, then place a trade from their Phantom Cash balance, paid in the CASH stablecoin. Kalshi, a CFTC-registered exchange, handles the customer checks, holds the trading accounts and runs the trades. People who already have a Kalshi account can link it and skip the checks. In March, CFTC staff gave Phantom no-action relief, so it did not need to register as an introducing broker to offer this access, with some conditions attached.
The timing is no accident. Kalshi's crypto contracts hit $10.8 billion in the 30 days to October 27, up almost 20% from the month before, and Phantom says more than 20 million people use its app. Phantom's trading chief put it plainly: crypto traders already think in 15-minute windows, and every extra screen costs them the price they saw. Putting the market inside the wallet cuts those steps out.
Read also: CFTC Sues Utah Over Prediction Markets — Its 10th State Fight, What's Next?
Is this trading, gambling, or both?
That is the fight still running in the courts. On Monday, the CFTC sued Utah, its tenth state case over who controls prediction markets, after Utah called Kalshi's contracts illegal gambling. The CFTC says federal law alone governs these markets. Until judges settle it, Kalshi's state limits apply market by market, so a sports bet open in one state may stay shut in another. And the risk is real: event contracts can lose your whole stake, a point Phantom's own disclosures spell out.
My own read is this: The app was the easy part. Phantom did the hard legal homework first, and that is why this launch landed while other wallets are still waiting. The real test is not the phone screen, it is whether the courts let these markets stay open in every state.
If the CFTC wins, every big wallet could follow Phantom into this game. If the states win, this tab could shrink fast. Which way does it go?
Read also: Bitcoin ETFs: 9 Big Firms Cut 68,000 BTC as Sovereign Funds Bought In
— BitByLine News Desk
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Sources: Cointelegraph, Business Wire