Kalshi perpetual contract volume manipulation? Kalshi crypto head's remarks draw questions from Polymarket team members

Odaily reported that CNBC recently covered Kalshi Perpetual Contracts, noting that trading volume surpassed $1 billion within the first week of launch. Kalshi's crypto division head John Wang subsequently posted on X: "Kalshi Perps hit $1 billion in trading volume in the first week, and the product hasn't even been publicly released yet." He also pointed out that it took prediction markets 3.5 years to reach a similar volume scale. Polymarket team member Mustafa Aljadery appeared in the comments section to congratulate, while also inquiring about the Perpetual Contracts' OI (open interest) data, insinuating that Kalshi's trading volume might have been manipulated.

Additionally, many community members in the comments expressed doubts about this data, emphasizing that it could be volume generated from zero-fee or leveraged trading. Some even pointed out that Kalshi's OI data stood at only around $4.5 million.