Kalshi responds to wash trading claims over ether perpetual volume

Kalshi has rejected allegations that wash trading inflated activity in its ether perpetual futures market, saying repeated trades identified in public data resulted from its market maker incentive structure rather than coordinated trading. The response follows analysis showing that a large share of KXETHPERP volume repeatedly traded around similar dollar values, prompting claims that the exchange was artificially boosting volume. Kalshi said its internal records show the trades involved hundreds of distinct takers trading against a market maker that consistently posted fixed size orders. According to Kalshi, its liquidity programs pay market makers to keep bids and offers of a specified size within defined spreads for a set portion of the trading day. The incentives reward resting liquidity rather than trading volume. Kalshi said this can naturally produce repeated trade sizes. If a market maker continuously posts roughly $5,000 orders, faster traders can repeatedly take those orders whenever prices move elsewhere, creating a pattern of similarly sized transactions. The exchange also confirmed that self clearing members currently receive rebates equal to their perpetual futures tra...