The prediction market platform Kalshi has appointed digital assets influencer John Wang as its new head of crypto, a decision the CEO referred to as “betting on slope.”
In a notice released on Monday, Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour announced the addition of the 23-year-old influencer from New York, who left the University of Pennsylvania to focus on crypto in 2024. Wang’s LinkedIn profile indicates he was a fellow at Paradigm and interned at Immutable before co-founding blockchain security firm Armor Labs in 2022.
“Slope embodies high-quality thinking, ambitious dreaming, and relentless hard work,” Mansour stated. “With every conversation I had with John, my conviction deepened. I am eager for us to advance the roadmap we are planning.”
Wang takes on this role as Kalshi faces scrutiny while US lawmakers deliberate on Brian Quintenz’s nomination to lead the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the regulatory agency overseeing the company.
The CFTC initiated an enforcement action against Kalshi in September 2024 under the Biden administration but sought to terminate the case in May during President Donald Trump’s administration.
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As the newly appointed head of crypto, Wang argued that prediction markets could enhance engagement in “political, financial, cultural” matters, sharing his insights from observing betting activity during the 2024 US presidential elections:
“As an Australian, I am not eligible to vote in US elections. However, prediction markets transformed my experience of them. In that moment, it became clear: this is how society will determine truth. Not through punditry or biased perspectives, but through markets that convert belief into something concrete.”
Despite launching in 2021, Kalshi experienced a surge in activity ahead of the 2024 US elections, offering various betting options for users. Although the CFTC sought a temporary injunction to prevent Kalshi from listing political event contracts, a court ruled in October, just a month before the federal elections, that the platform could provide such betting opportunities.
Kalshi successfully closed a $185 million funding round in June, leading to a company valuation of approximately $2 billion. This funding and the hiring of Wang came after the platform announced it would start accepting Bitcoin (BTC) deposits in April to attract more crypto-savvy users.
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