How the World Cup Became One of Kalshi’s Biggest Onboarding Events

John Wang, head of crypto at Kalshi, joins Sam just days after the company hit a $40 billion valuation and one year into John's tenure, which has seen prediction markets go from niche internet community to mainstream financial instrument. They cover the World Cup trading frenzy, why crypto is now the second largest market on the platform, and how Kalshi built the first CFTC-regulated perp exchange in the US from the ground up, doing $1 billion in its first week and $5 billion in its first month. - Timecodes:

0:00 - Cold open on prediction markets going mainstream

0:25 - Introduction: John Wang, head of crypto at Kalshi

0:46 - Reflecting on Kalshi's growth over the past year

2:03 - Sports' economic impact and the Knicks/World Cup effect

3:24 - CLARITY Act, midterms hub, and regulatory unlocks

4:08 - Launching the first CFTC-regulated perp market

6:26 - Explosive early perps adoption (billion in week one)

7:55 - Risk tools: stop loss, take profit, and Kalshi Social

9:12 - Agentic trading and API-driven automation - From our sponsors: This episode is brought to you by RealFi, a smarter stablecoin, backed by real-world assets. RealFi is launching August 2026. Join the Testnet now at realfi.co.