Polymarket has cut jobs and terminated several contractor agreements in a reorganisation aimed at holding its ground against fast-growing rival Kalshi, the prediction market startup confirmed on Wednesday.
An internal email ending a contractor agreement has been circulating on social media platform X since last week. The company confirmed on Wednesday that the screenshot was genuine. The email told the contractor: “We’re reaching out with difficult news. As part of a company-wide reduction in force, we’ve made the decision to end your contractor agreement with Polymarket effective November 4, 2026.”
Polymarket declined to disclose how many staff were affected or what share of its workforce the cuts represent. More than half of the cuts were contractors, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters — a claim that rests on a single anonymous source and has not been independently verified.
“As we’ve grown and brought on new leadership, we’ve reorganized to set the company up for its next phase of growth, which has meant a lot of new hires, changes in personnel and letting some people go,” the company said in an emailed statement.
The shake-up comes as Polymarket, once the clear market leader, now trails Kalshi in monthly trading volume. Kalshi has benefited from wider distribution and new partnerships, including a lucrative deal tied to the FIFA World Cup. The reorganisation follows a run of senior hires: veteran finance executive Warren Jenson became Polymarket’s first chief financial officer in September, and former Uber executive Travis VanderZanden joined as chief growth officer this year.
Both companies have faced scrutiny from regulators over their marketing and other practices. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission is examining whether Polymarket breached a 2022 enforcement agreement in which it promised to bar US users from its main overseas platform, Reuters reported last month, citing people familiar with the matter.
Kalshi, meanwhile, raised $1 billion late last month in a funding round co-led by Sequoia and Wellington, at a valuation of $40 billion — a war chest that underlines the scale of the contest Polymarket now faces.
Sources: Reuters, “Polymarket cuts jobs, contracts as prediction market competition heats up” — https://www.reuters.com/business/polymarket-cuts-jobs-contracts-prediction-market-competition-heats-up-2026-11-11/
