# What to use instead of Kalshi

Three reasons people leave Kalshi — a funding rail that refuses them, a question it will not list, or an exchange that resolves its own markets.

*https://predictionmarkets.tools/alternatives/kalshi-alternatives*

## The subject

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Product | Kalshi |
| Status | live |
| Our card | https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/kalshi.md |
| Category | Prediction Market Venues |

A CFTC-designated contract market for event contracts, settled in dollars against a source named per market, with identity verification before you can trade.

## Replacements

*Ordered by how much of the original’s job each one covers, closest first. Paid placement does not affect this order.*

1. [Polymarket](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/polymarket.md) — The broadest listing outside the US, funded in stablecoins rather than by debit card or wire, with no identity check in the ordinary flow.
2. [Polymarket US](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/polymarket-us.md) — For an American staying in dollars — the same regulatory shape, a different listing, and a maker who is paid rather than merely not charged.
3. [ForecastEx](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/forecastex.md) — Reaches Canada, Ireland, Hong Kong and Singapore through a broker, all four of which Kalshi's member agreement restricts.
4. [Limitless](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/limitless.md) — No fiat rail to be refused at, and Pyth or a Chainlink average settles most markets without anyone at the venue reading a source.
5. [Myriad](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/myriad.md) — A shorter prohibited list, settlement in stablecoins or season points, and an AMM that quotes when the book would be empty.
6. [Futuur](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/futuur.md) — Play money is open worldwide, and the real-money side takes USDC or USDT where its licence permits — no bank in the path either way.
7. [Manifold](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/manifold.md) — The question Kalshi will not list, written by you and live in about thirty seconds, because nothing here has to be self-certified.
8. [Metaculus](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/metaculus.md) — For a reader who wanted the forecast rather than the position — proper scoring, a public record, no money and no jurisdiction test.

## The product

Kalshi is the oldest regulated venue in this category — KalshiEX LLC received its Order of
Designation as a CFTC-designated contract market on 3 November 2020, and clearing came in-house
when Kalshi Klear LLC was granted registration as a derivatives clearing organization in August
2024. Our [card](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/kalshi) covers what it is and what it costs. This page is about the three
ways people end up leaving, which are not the same problem and do not have the same answer.

**You are outside the United States and the money will not move.** This is the one that catches
people after they have already been approved, because eligibility and funding are two different
restrictions. Kalshi has served many countries since March 2026, subject to a member agreement
whose restricted list — amended by an Exchange Notice effective 22 June 2026 — now runs to 55
jurisdictions. Clear that hurdle and a second one is waiting: **ACH, PayPal and Venmo are not
available to international users**, so funding is a debit card, a wire with a $1,000 minimum, or
crypto, and withdrawals are debit card or crypto only. Wire withdrawals are documented as not
currently supported below $500,000. None of that is a geoblock; it is a banking relationship that
your bank may decline on its own terms.

Note also what the jurisdiction restriction consists of. It is **a representation and warranty you
make at signup** — that you are not domiciled, organized or located in a prohibited jurisdiction —
rather than a documented technical block, and the agreement may be amended unilaterally on notice.
The June 2026 notice added India, Ireland, New Zealand and Portugal to a list that had not
included them in February. That is a venue you can be eligible for in one quarter and not the
next, through no act of your own.

**The question you want is not listed, and will not be.** Kalshi lists broadly — aggregating the
category field over 200 live open events on 19 September 2026 gives economics 57, sports 55,
entertainment 22, elections 18, politics 15, science and technology 14, climate and weather 8 —
but every one of those series exists because it was self-certified with the CFTC and survived
review. A designated contract market does not list a question because three people are curious
about it. This is a structural limit and not a backlog.

**You do not want the exchange grading its own market.** Kalshi's markets team determines the
outcome, as the exchange, against the source named in each market's rules. There is no bond, no
dispute window and no third-party vote: if the team reads the source differently from you, that is
the answer. It is worth saying that Kalshi publishes more of this than anyone — every event
exposes a machine-readable `settlement_sources` array of names and URLs through the public API —
but publishing the source is not the same as handing the decision to someone else.

## What to use instead

**If the problem is the funding rail**, the fix is a venue with no bank in the path.
[Polymarket](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/polymarket) is the obvious one for a non-US reader: collateral is pUSD, an
ERC-20 backed one-for-one by USDC, an account is a wallet, and there is no identity check in the
ordinary flow. Check its list against yours first, though — Polymarket blocks the United Kingdom,
Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and
Brazil outright, and Kalshi restricts a different set, so a reader is quite often barred by
exactly one of the two. [Limitless](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/limitless) is USDC on Base with a much shorter list —
the United States, the "Republic of China", Ontario and Alberta, plus the sanctioned territories.
[Myriad](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/myriad) names nineteen prohibited territories, several of them unexpected: France,
Malta, Singapore and Switzerland, and the Cayman Islands where its own operator is registered.
[Futuur](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/futuur) takes USDC or USDT where its Anjouan licence permits and play money
everywhere else.

**If the problem is jurisdiction rather than the rail**, there is one route that stays regulated
and cash-settled. [ForecastEx](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/forecastex) has no direct accounts at all — Rule 301 bars
individuals from membership — so access runs through a futures commission merchant, and
Interactive Brokers' own disclosures name its **Canada, Ireland, Hong Kong and Singapore**
entities among those whose eligible clients can trade forecast contracts. All four of those are on
Kalshi's restricted list. The trade-off is the listing: macro releases, Fed policy, climate
indicators and US elections, no sports, and US election contracts restricted to eligible US
residents even inside a served country.

**If the problem is the question set**, split it by what kind of question it is. A short-cadence
crypto question — BTC or ETH up or down over five minutes, fifteen minutes or an hour — is
[Limitless](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/limitless)'s core listing rather than an afterthought. A question about
something nobody would self-certify belongs on [Manifold](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/manifold), where anyone opens a
market in about thirty seconds, the creator resolves it, and the currency is mana, which the
documentation describes plainly as play money that cannot be converted to cash. A question you
want answered rather than traded belongs on [Metaculus](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/metaculus): no balance, no position,
nothing to sell, and a log-score-based record that is the point of being there.
[Polymarket](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/polymarket) sits in between on breadth, and it charges nothing at all to take
a geopolitics market.

**If the problem is who resolves**, note first that no US exchange solves it.
[Polymarket US](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/polymarket-us) is worse on this axis, not better: Rule 10.4 lets named
officers review any market at sole discretion, determine the final outcome and reverse an obvious
error, and states that the company's determinations are final. [ForecastEx](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/forecastex)
narrows the discretion instead of moving it — the contract's own terms document names the source
agency and the resolution time in advance, and the building-permits contract states that **only
the initial release counts and later revisions do not affect the outcome**. Outside the US,
[Limitless](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/limitless) resolves most markets automatically through Pyth at the deadline and
the 5- and 15-minute crypto markets against a Chainlink time-weighted average, with only custom
event markets going to its team; [Polymarket](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/polymarket) hands the decision to the UMA
optimistic oracle, where a proposal is bonded, challengeable for two hours and escalates on a
second dispute to a vote of UMA token holders that the company cannot overturn. That is the one
arrangement in the category where the venue is not the judge — and it is a vote of token holders,
which some readers dislike more than they dislike an exchange.

## What you give up

**The settlement source as a field rather than a sentence.** Kalshi publishes a machine-readable
`settlement_sources` array on every event — a name and a URL, live examples including NATO's own
site, a specific NASA GISS data file and democrats.org — and some markets require several named
outlets to agree. Nothing else in this category comes close. On
[Myriad](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/myriad) the API returns a resolution-source URL per market, which is the nearest
equivalent; on [Polymarket](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/polymarket) and [Limitless](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/limitless) the market page is
the authoritative rule and you read it by hand, one market at a time. You are trading an
un-appealable decision that is fully documented for one that is less documented and, on most of
this list, also un-appealable.

**The dollars, and everything attached to them.** Kalshi settles in US dollars, fully
collateralised and cleared through its own clearing house, issues tax documents electronically at
year end, makes trade history downloadable with every transaction itemised, and updates a
profit-and-loss statement on the first of each month. [Polymarket](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/polymarket),
[Limitless](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/limitless) and [Myriad](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/myriad) give you none of that: a wallet you have
to fund for gas, a stablecoin whose accounting is yours to do, and a tax conversation you will be
having with your own records. Myriad goes further — **31 of the 70 open markets returned by its
public API on 19 September 2026 were denominated in PTS season points rather than in money**, and
they look identical to stablecoin markets in the interface.

**The most complete developer surface in the category, and the only rehearsal.** REST, WebSocket
and a FIX session for institutional flow, first-party Python and TypeScript SDKs, subaccounts,
RFQ and block trades, historical endpoints — and a **demo environment with separate credentials**
that lets you run a strategy against the real shape of the exchange without funding anything.
There is no demo environment anywhere else in this category. [Limitless](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/limitless) and
[Myriad](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/myriad) each ship a documented API and an MCP server, [Polymarket](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/polymarket)
has the deepest third-party ecosystem, and [ForecastEx](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/forecastex) publishes **no public
API, no WebSocket feed and no SDK at all** — what you get there is whatever your broker's platform
offers. If your position is placed by code, price that difference before the fee difference.

**A maker side that is free almost everywhere.** Kalshi's maker multiplier defaults to zero, and
reading the `fee_type` field across every series it publishes on 19 September 2026 finds a maker
fee on 160 of 11,078 — 1.4%. Taking costs $1.75 per 100 contracts at the midpoint, which is dearer
than [Polymarket](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/polymarket)'s $1.25 for most categories, so a taker generally saves by
leaving and a resting maker usually does not. [Limitless](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/limitless) charges makers nothing
either but takes **3.00% on an order-book buy at any price up to 50 cents**, which is exactly
where a longshot position lives. [ForecastEx](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/forecastex) charges a flat cent per contract
per side — 1% of the payout at *every* price rather than only at the midpoint, so it is cheaper
than Kalshi in the middle of the range and dearer at the ends.

**Interest, in the one direction it exists.** This one is a gain rather than a loss, and it is the
only place on this list where leaving pays you something: [ForecastEx](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/forecastex)'s
Rule 612(c) requires the clearing house to pass the interest earned on collateral accounts back to
members monthly, and Interactive Brokers quoted 3.38% APY on 19 September 2026. Kalshi's
collateral earns you nothing. Treat the rate as a dated observation — the rule is durable, the
number is not, and whether you see any of it depends on your broker.

## Migration notes

**Work out which restriction bit you before you pick a replacement.** A declined signup, a
declined card and a trade blocked at the order ticket are three different failures with three
different fixes, and only the first is about jurisdiction. If Kalshi approved you and your money
will not move, an on-chain venue solves it outright; if the member agreement names your country,
check whether [ForecastEx](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/forecastex) reaches you through a broker before assuming you
need a wallet.

**Nothing transfers, and the contracts are not the same contracts.** There is no position
transfer between any two venues in this category. Moving means closing at whatever the book will
pay, withdrawing, funding elsewhere and buying a contract that settles under different rules
against a different source. A market on the same event is not the same market: read the
replacement's resolution criteria before you assume the trade survived the move.

**The withdrawal is the slow half.** Wire withdrawals are documented as not currently supported
below $500,000, so in practice money leaves Kalshi by ACH if you are American and by debit card or
crypto if you are not, and Kalshi reserves the right to charge between 0% and 2% on all rails.
Plan the exit before you close the positions, not after.

**Custody replaces onboarding.** Kalshi's identity check is specific — a driver's licence or
passport photographed live in the app, no camera-roll upload and no photograph of a screen, with
proof of address, employment information and source of funds possible on top. What replaces it on
[Polymarket](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/polymarket), [Limitless](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/limitless) or [Myriad](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/myriad) is a
private key, gas on a chain you have to fund, and a lost key that nobody can mail back to you.
[Futuur](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/futuur) sits in between, asking for identity and address once lifetime deposits
pass the equivalent of 2,000 USD, and requiring a deposit to be staked at least once before it can
be withdrawn.

**Read the resolution mechanism you are moving to, not just the one you are leaving.**
[Limitless](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/limitless) refunds a misresolution at your **cost basis** rather than the
dollar the correct side should have received, while the wrongly paid side keeps the money, because
the payout settled on-chain. [Myriad](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/myriad) voids an unresolvable market at its market
value at the moment of cancellation, which can be less than you paid.
[Polymarket US](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/polymarket-us) can change a contract's specification — including the
settlement date and the payout condition — under Rule 10.3 after you hold the position, and
cancels every resting order on the exchange during its Thursday 02:00 to 04:00 ET maintenance
window. Each of those is a rule you will only meet once, on the day it costs you something.

**If what you actually wanted was to be right rather than to be paid**, the move is cheaper than
it looks. [Metaculus](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/metaculus) is free, open worldwide, needs no identity check and
scores you on a proper rule; [Manifold](https://predictionmarkets.tools/tools/manifold) publishes its own platform-wide
calibration curve and lets you write the question yourself. Neither asks your country, and neither
has a funding rail to refuse you.

## FAQ

### Kalshi says I am eligible but my card keeps failing. Why?

Eligibility and funding are two separate restrictions and the second one is narrower. ACH, PayPal and Venmo are not available to international users at all, so an account outside the US funds by debit card, by wire with a $1,000 minimum, or by crypto, and withdraws by debit card or crypto only. Being allowed to trade does not mean your usual rail will work.

### Which countries does Kalshi actually restrict?

Its member agreement, amended by an Exchange Notice effective 22 June 2026, names 55 jurisdictions. They include the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Italy, Ireland, Belgium, Portugal, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Switzerland, India, China, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates. Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Japan and South Korea are not on it.

### Is there a US venue where the exchange does not decide the outcome?

No. Every CFTC-designated venue in this catalogue resolves its own contracts — Kalshi's markets team, Polymarket US under Rule 10.4, ForecastEx against the source agency named in each contract. What differs is how much discretion is left in the reading. ForecastEx fixes the source and the release in advance; Polymarket US reserves an explicit power to review and reverse. Only the non-US on-chain venues take the decision away from a person.

### Can I keep trading the same contracts somewhere else?

Not the same contracts. Nothing transfers between any two venues here, and a market on the same event elsewhere carries its own rules text, its own settlement source and its own resolution authority. Kalshi's demo environment has no equivalent on any other venue in the category, so the closest thing to rehearsing a move is play money on Manifold or Futuur's Ooms side.