Phantom, the wallet non custodial, invece di lasciarle a un exchange o a un'altra società che le custodisce per te.">self-custody crypto wallet, started letting users in the United States trade Kalshi prediction markets inside its app on Friday 23 October 2026, according to a post on Phantom’s blog. Access will widen over the next few weeks. Trades are paid with CASH, Phantom’s dollar stablecoin, which is converted to fiat once it reaches Kalshi, and Phantom shows a fee of $0.02 per contract, The Block reported the same day.
This is a US-only launch. A Phantom user in France, Italy, Nigeria or anywhere else outside the United States will not get these markets, and neither Phantom nor Kalshi has said anything about other countries.
The timing is tense for Kalshi. On Tuesday 20 October, three days before the rollout, Utah’s attorney general sued Kalshi and two Susquehanna firms under state gambling law. Phantom says federal law covers what it does. Several states, and two federal appeals courts, have taken the other side in Kalshi’s cases.
How Phantom’s Kalshi integration works: KYC, CASH and a $0.02 fee
Phantom does not run the market. Its blog describes the split: users verify their identity and place trades in the Phantom app, a third-party service collects and stores the identity data, and Kalshi approves and holds the trading accounts and executes the orders Phantom passes on. The Block adds that the identity check (KYC) is completed with Kalshi.
The money path matters more than the screen. According to The Block, users fund trades from a Phantom Cash account in CASH. Funds sent to Kalshi are converted to fiat for settlement, and withdrawals and winnings come back to the Cash account. The contracts themselves live on a regulated exchange that settles in dollars, not on a blockchain.
CASH is the funding route The Block describes for the launch. Kevin Jacobs, Phantom’s general counsel, told the outlet that “more ways to pay are coming soon”, without naming them or giving a date.
On top of the $0.02 per contract, a small network fee applies when funds move to Kalshi, and Phantom shows the breakdown before the user confirms, The Block reported. The blog post itself gives no fee detail, and we did not find a Phantom help page that lists fees or states.
| Point | What is reported | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Who can use it | US users only, rollout from 23 October 2026 over several weeks | Phantom blog |
| Identity check | KYC completed with Kalshi; a third-party service stores identity data | The Block, Phantom blog |
| Funding | CASH from a Phantom Cash account, converted to fiat at Kalshi | The Block |
| Fees | $0.02 per contract plus a small network fee to move funds | The Block |
| Payouts | Withdrawals and winnings return to the Cash account | The Block |
| Markets shown | Chosen by Phantom from Kalshi’s full catalogue | The Block |
Kalshi opens its whole catalogue to Phantom, and Phantom decides which markets appear in the app, Max Crowley, Kalshi’s vice president of business development, told The Block. He expects the tie-up to bring Kalshi more users and liquidity. On Phantom’s blog he said: “Phantom did the regulatory work up front, and it’s a model for how prediction markets can reach more people.” Phantom calls this its first US integration. Our explainer on Kalshi and its fight with the states covers how the exchange is regulated.
Sports blocked in Michigan, elections too in Nevada and Washington
Some markets are off in some states from day one. According to The Block, Michigan users cannot trade sports contracts. In Nevada, sports, elections, politics and entertainment are blocked. Washington blocks all of those plus culture, science and tech, mentions and geopolitics.
The Block notes that these limits could change as the court cases in those states play out. Phantom says it will follow state restrictions, and its blog says markets are subject to availability in certain jurisdictions, without a list. Nobody has published the restrictions for the other states, so a US reader outside those three should check in the app rather than assume full access.
Phantom relies on a CFTC staff no-action letter, not a licence
Phantom’s own disclaimer is short: “Phantom is not registered with the CFTC.” What it has is a no-action letter. On 17 March 2026 CFTC staff issued Staff Letter 26-09, a conditional letter confirming that Phantom would not need to register as an introducing broker to give users access to regulated markets, Decrypt reported that day. Phantom’s blog gives the letter number and says the relief is subject to certain conditions, without listing them.
The scope is narrow. According to Decrypt, the relief does not reach DeFi derivatives or tokenized prediction markets (Jacobs cited Polymarket as an example of the latter), and the CFTC said formal rulemaking or broader guidance could supersede it. “Phantom never touches customer funds,” Jacobs wrote at the time.
A no-action letter is a statement by agency staff about enforcement. It is not a rule passed by the commission and not a court ruling, and it does not settle the separate question of whether state gambling laws reach the contracts themselves. In September the CFTC granted industry-wide relief under the same conditions to similar software providers, according to Phantom’s blog; The Block also reports the extension.
Jacobs told The Block: “Our perspective is that the CFTC’s jurisdiction here is clear.” As long as Phantom’s role stays consistent with its no-action position, he said, “we are confident and comfortable engaging in this activity”. He added that Phantom would comply with state restrictions while the disputes play out and that he expects the Supreme Court to have the final say. Crowley declined to comment on the state cases.
Utah’s lawsuit and a split between federal appeals courts
Utah’s complaint, filed on 20 October in 3rd District Court in Salt Lake City, targets Kalshi and several related entities plus Susquehanna International Group and Susquehanna Government Products, the Deseret News reported. It invokes the state’s anti-gambling laws and declares the activity a public nuisance. Attorney General Derek Brown wants sports, election, politics, culture and mention contracts stopped in Utah through a court-approved geolocation provider, plus damages and restitution. The state puts Kalshi’s earnings from Utah accounts at $30.5 million to $61.1 million, an estimate based on a fee of one to two cents per trade. Kalshi spokesperson Jacki McGavick said the exchange is federally regulated and “no single state should have a veto over it”, adding that the state action “does not affect our ongoing federal litigation”.
The same article counts at least nine states that have acted against prediction-market platforms, including a criminal complaint in Arizona. Utah had earlier joined 40 states and the District of Columbia in a letter to the CFTC arguing that the commission has no jurisdiction over sports betting.
The courts have not given one answer. In April 2026 the Third Circuit, in Philadelphia, held that Kalshi’s contracts are not subject to New Jersey’s gambling laws. In late August the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, went the other way in Nevada’s case. On 25 September a unanimous Sixth Circuit panel in Cincinnati held that Ohio and Tennessee can apply their gambling laws to event contracts, Al Jazeera reported, recalling the two earlier rulings. With appeals courts split, a Supreme Court case is widely expected, which is the outcome Jacobs points to.
The federal government is also watching these markets. On Friday the Pentagon barred troops from betting on military operations with nonpublic information, naming Polymarket and Kalshi.
Kalshi volumes, and Robinhood’s push into the same contracts
Phantom joins as Kalshi’s volumes climb. According to The Block’s own data, Kalshi has handled more than $291 billion in trading volume this year. October had reached $55.33 billion with nine days left, on pace to pass September’s monthly record of $59.32 billion.
Brokers are moving the same way. Robinhood, whose prediction markets also run through Kalshi, sees bitcoin, gold and oil contracts among its fastest growing, JB Mackenzie, its vice president and general manager for futures and prediction markets, said on Thursday 22 October at the NEXTPredict event in New York, CoinDesk reported. He said those contracts were starting to “dominate the marketplace”, though sports remain the largest category. Kalshi is also widening its offer: it plans to let traders post bitcoin as margin for perpetual futures.
What Phantom and Kalshi have not said yet
Several points are open. Phantom has not said how many of its US users will get access, or by when the rollout ends. Restrictions outside Michigan, Nevada and Washington are not public. No date has been given for payment methods other than CASH, and neither company has said which firm holds the dollars once they reach Kalshi.
The next markers are the end of the rollout in the coming weeks, Kalshi’s response in the Utah case and any Supreme Court petition on the circuit split. For how the wallet itself works, see our Phantom wallet review.