Techme101.com

Kalshi has announced that it raised more than $300 million in a Series D funding round at a $5 billion valuation. The round was led by Sequoia and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), with strong participation from returning investor Paradigm. Other backers include CapitalG, Coinbase Ventures, General Catalyst, and Spark Capital.
The news comes in the same week that Polymarket, Kalshi’s main competitor, revealed that Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, plans to invest up to $2 billion in its platform.
Even so, Kalshi has now pulled ahead of Polymarket to become the biggest player in the prediction market space, holding more than 60% of global market share, according to data from Dune.

Kalshi recently raised $300M+ at $5B from Sequoia, a16z, Paradigm and others.
Since then, we’ve grown over 3x, hit $50B of annualized volume, and became the largest prediction market in the world.
And today…Kalshi goes global.
140+ countries. 1 liquidity pool. pic.twitter.com/Z2myzRw9bA
— Tarek Mansour (@mansourtarek_) October 10, 2025

The round was actually raised in August, and since then, Kalshi has expanded its reach to more than 140 countries. The move effectively created the world’s only unified global prediction market and opened the door to billions of potential new users. People outside the US will now reportedly be able to use Kalshi through its website with the same experience as American customers.
Series D funding could push Kalshi into the mainstream
In a statement shared with ReadWrite, Alfred Lin, partner at Sequoia and a member of Kalshi’s board, said: “Tarek and Luana’s bold vision to make prediction markets mainstream initially drew us to partner with Kalshi in 2020.
“Since then, they’ve built a category-defining company that represents the future of how markets democratize information. We’re excited to deepen our partnership as Kalshi redefines what it means to have an opinion about the future.”
The CFTC-regulated exchange hit a major milestone with more than $1 billion traded on its platform, pushing its annualized trading volume above $50 billion. In September, Kalshi captured the majority of global prediction market volume, a huge leap from just 2% a year earlier, especially impressive given it only operated in one country at the time.
“Kalshi has emerged as the leading prediction market platform, and we’re thrilled to back them,” said Alex Immerman, partner on a16z’s Growth Fund.
“Tarek and Luana chose the difficult but more responsible path of becoming the first CFTC regulated prediction market, and their breadth of markets, liquidity, and infrastructure are built for scale. Kalshi has the opportunity to capture what may become the largest and most important financial market.”
Following the announcement, DraftKings stock dipped 0.75% and Flutter dropped 3%.
Featured image: Kalshi
The post Kalshi raises $300 million Series D, hitting $5B valuation and expansion appeared first on ReadWrite.

A duo from Braintree, Massachusetts, both pled guilty in Suffolk Superior Court over charges relating to unlicensed basement casinos in the area’s Chinatown and Quincy.

The two people, husband and wife, Xue Tan Zheng, 50, and Xiu Rong Li, 55, admitted to the crimes, netting them fifteen felonies apiece. This includes the transporting and trafficking of 12,000 unstamped cigarettes, along with the registering of bets and possession of unlicensed gaming machines.

The fifteen felonies break down like this:

Two counts of possession of an unlicensed gaming device
Two counts of registering bets
Two counts of tax evasion and filing false tax returns
Two counts of transporting 12,000 unstamped cigarettes
Three counts of money laundering
Three counts of trafficking more than 12,000 cigarettes

According to the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office, Li and Zheng ran the two underground casinos from 2022. These provided tables, devices, slot machines, and cash payouts without any regulation. The unstamped cigarettes were then sold within the establishments.
Massachusetts seized over $6 million in cigarettes from underground casinos pair

Law enforcement raided the different locations back in September 2024. This is where they had a large seizure, as outside of the “more than 12,000” mentioned in the guilty plea, they secured “600,000 packs of unstamped cigarettes” at different residences and businesses. According to the press release, this tallies over $6,000,000. The husband and wife duo would sell the cigarettes without tax, which breaks tax mandates set by the Commissioner of Revenue.

Another 22 slot machines were also seized, along with $141,000. Of course, the tax office will get its due, as law enforcement found that they didn’t file their taxes properly in 2022 and 2023. Previous reports put that figure at around $1.2 million of income that wasn’t taxed.

The pair were originally indicted in April, after the Tobacco Task Force uncovered the underground casinos during an investigation. Zheng will serve three years in state prison.
Featured image: WikiCommons / CC BY-SA 3.0

The post Massachusetts couple found guilty for running underground casinos appeared first on ReadWrite.