Kalshi Trading Bot Suspicions Spark Wash Trading Claims
A trading bot on Kalshi's platform raised suspicions of wash trading after making uniform trades. Beni, a pseudonymous quant analyst, noticed that the bot was buying and selling shares at extremely low prices repeatedly.
The trades were identified in the Ethereum perpetual contracts market, with 58% of the volume coming from $5,500 trades made across four days. The total trading volume was reported as $539 million, while open interest was just $3.1 million.
Kalshi's crypto lead, IcoBeast.eth, initially aggressively defended the bot's activity, but later apologized for being 'a dick' and acknowledged that the incentives on Kalshi pay for liquidity, not wash trading.
The suspicious trades were visualized by Daniel Sapkota, who noted that they resembled a metronome. The bot was reportedly active in the 2028 Democratic Presidential Nominee market, despite Mamdani being unable to be the presidential nominee due to his birthplace.