US-based prediction market platform Kalshi to launch crypto price bets

U.S.-based prediction market platform Kalshi is launching five new event contracts for its clients on Monday that will allow them to bet on various market price movements of bitcoin and ether, according to its website.

The five new offerings on Kalshi include a market event contract predicting the future value of bitcoin, where users can bet on five following price targets for this year — $75,000, $80,000, $90,000, $100,000, and $150,000 or above. Other event contracts include estimating ether’s price each day at 4 p.m.

While the bets are based on cryptocurrency prices, users can place bets in U.S. dollars instead of in crypto. Kalshi allows users to bet on primarily “yes or no” topics across various fields, including the likelihood of another Fed rate hike or a hurricane hitting New Orleans in 2024. 

Bitcoin price correction

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Kalshi’s new prediction markets are launching amid the cryptocurrency markets experiencing exponential growth since the latter half of last year. The surge coincided with the launch of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the U.S. The GMCI 30 , the index measuring the performance of the representative 30 crypto tokens of the market, has risen around 115% from the second half of 2023.

Nonetheless, bitcoin has undergone a price correction over the past week, from recording an all-time high of over $73,000 to a low point of under $65,000 on Sunday. While bitcoin’s price drop last week has sparked debate on whether there could be a bubble in crypto’s latest bull cycle, Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek told CNBC that the price correction is a “healthy move” that removes some of the leverage built up in the system.

The price of bitcoin has since recovered to trade at around $68,174 at 3:30 p.m. Hong Kong time.