Kalshi ditches Trump Jr. as advisor; CEO admitted "optics" weren't good
arstechnica.com

... Trump Jr. may still have a financial interest in Kalshi, which has benefited from the Trump administration's legal and regulatory support for prediction markets. Trump Jr. "was handed about $300,000 worth of equity in Kalshi after joining the prediction market platform as a strategic adviser in early 2025," the Financial Times reported in June.

"Kalshi's donation of shares to the US president's eldest son granted him a stake in the private company when it was valued at under $2 billion, less than a tenth of its $22 billion valuation in a funding round last month," the Financial Times article said. Kalshi is reportedly in talks for a new funding round that would value it at $65 billion. ...

The Trump administration has helped prediction markets grow with a permissive regulatory approach taken by the Commodity Futures Exchange Commission (CFTC). The CFTC has also sued 11 states in attempts to block state regulation of prediction markets, and filed briefs supporting Kalshi in its own cases against individual states. Attorneys general in many states accuse Kalshi of running an illegal gambling operation. ...