DeFi Rate's aggregation of Kalshi trades put event-contract volume at $21.52 billion for Oct. 12–18 UTC, while estimated payments based on transaction prices were about $4.9 billion. The gap reflects different ways of measuring activity.
The weekly dollar total rose from $19.03 billion in the previous week. The period also recorded more than 100 million trades, a separate count from the dollar volume.
DeFi Rate's volume calculation assigns each traded contract its full potential payout of $1. That valuation does not change with the price paid to trade the contract, so the total represents potential payout value rather than buyers' spending. Adding the rounded daily amounts calculated at transaction prices produces an estimate of about $4.9 billion for the week. That estimate is not a measure of deposits or net cash entering or leaving Kalshi.
Under DeFi Rate's method, a larger share of trading in lower-priced combination contracts can increase the gap between those totals. A combination contract depends on several event outcomes at once. Even when its trading price is below $1, its full potential payout contributes to the volume calculation.
The reporting period ran from 8 p.m. ET Oct. 11 (00:00 UTC Oct. 12) to 8 p.m. ET Oct. 18 (00:00 UTC Oct. 19). The two dollar totals describe different aspects of that week: one applies potential payouts to traded contracts, while the other estimates the prices paid. The higher volume figure does not mean traders paid $21.52 billion.
