Kalshi and Polymarket hit record $2.7 billion in weekly crypto volume

Crypto-related prediction market volume on Kalshi and Polymarket reached a record $2.7 billion in a single week. Bitcoin price bets did most of the work. That figure makes crypto the second most traded category on both platforms, behind only sports. Where the $2.7 billion came from The record arrived in mid-October 2026. It reflects weekly notional volume, meaning the total face value of crypto-related event contracts traded across the two platforms. The engine behind the surge is a new crop of high-frequency products. The standout is Kalshi’s 15-minute up/down contract on Bitcoin. Kalshi’s Bitcoin contracts alone generated over $2 billion in a single week. That one subset accounts for the bulk of the combined $2.7 billion crypto total. Polymarket is contributing too, mostly through its own shorter-duration crypto markets. Its US arm reported 15-minute Bitcoin volume of approximately $92 million to $101 million in its first full week of operation. Kalshi’s record-setting October The crypto numbers sit inside a broader boom at Kalshi. The regulated US prediction market exchange set multiple weekly records during October. Its peak came during the week of October 5 to 11, when total c...