Kalshi sees transfer delays amid Super Bowl traffic surge

Kalshi transfer delays caused by Super Bowl traffic surge

Kalshi experienced transfer delays during the Super Bowl as activity spiked around game time. As reported by Front Office Sports, the prediction markets app saw glitches tied to a surge in demand, indicating operational strain during peak volumes.

In practical terms, Super Bowl traffic can bottleneck both payments intake and internal crediting flows, slowing the time it takes for deposits to appear in user balances. The company has framed the slowdown as volume-driven rather than a loss of funds, with transfers expected to complete once backlogs clear.

What it means for deposits, balances, and fund safety

When transfers slow, a bank debit may post before a Kalshi balance updates, reflecting normal sequencing between banking rails and the platform’s customer ledger. In consumer finance operations, this often occurs when inbound payments are authorized upstream and then queued for internal reconciliation before balances refresh.

“Some deposits are delayed because of the amount of traffic and deposits we’re getting… Your money is safe and on the way, it will just take longer to land,” said Luana Lopes Lara, cofounder of Kalshi, in a post on X, according to Business Insider.

Expected delay duration and how to check status

The company has not provided a precise timeline; statements indicate transfers will take longer than usual during the backlog. Status is typically reflected first in a transfer history and then in the main balance once funds are credited after reconciliation across the banking network and internal systems.

From a regulatory lens, Kalshi operates in a market overseen by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and state-level interpretations remain in flux. A Nevada ruling held that certain sports event contracts fall under state gambling laws, a decision Kalshi is appealing, as reported by Financial Times; while not specific to these delays, high-visibility incidents can draw attention from regulators without inherently implying a breach.

Prediction markets deposits: where funds are during delays

During delays, funds associated with bank or ACH transfers generally sit in transit between the originating bank, payment processors, and the receiving account before being posted to a platform’s customer ledger. Until that posting step completes, the transfer may appear as pending or authorized but will not show as available balance; once reconciliation finishes, the balance updates and becomes tradable.

At the time of this writing, as contextual background on sports-betting equities, DraftKings Inc. (DKNG) closed at 26.62 on February 6 and traded at 26.74 after hours, with the quote page itself noting delayed data, based on data from NasdaqGS.