Jump Trading Acquires Stakes in Polymarket and Kalshi

Chicago-based quantitative trading firm Jump Trading is acquiring minority stakes in the leading prediction market platforms Polymarket and Kalshi in exchange for providing market-making liquidity services, according to sources familiar with the negotiations.

The deal, first reported on Monday, grants Jump a fixed equity position in Kalshi, while its stake in Polymarket will scale based on the volume of liquidity the firm supplies to the platform's U.S. operations. Neither the companies nor Jump Trading immediately responded to requests for comment. Prediction markets allow users to trade contracts on the outcomes of real-world events, such as elections or sports results, and rely on market makers like Jump to ensure smooth trading by taking the opposite side of customer bets when needed.

Polymarket and Kalshi dominate the sector, each achieving multibillion-dollar valuations through recent funding rounds. Polymarket, a decentralized platform built on the Polygon blockchain, raised $2 billion from Intercontinental Exchange, the parent of the New York Stock Exchange, in a round that valued it at $9 billion. The platform uses on-chain settlement for its prediction contracts,...