Exchanges: Polymarket & Kalshi
HiveTrade does not run a market of its own. Every call is placed on a real market at a third-party exchange, and HiveTrade supports two of them: Polymarket and Kalshi. A Hive is bound to one exchange when the Captain creates it, and that choice can't be changed afterwards. To follow a Hive you need your own account at its exchange. That's where your money sits and where every order executes.
The two exchanges do the same job (a YES/NO market that pays out when the question resolves), but they are built very differently, and the difference is mostly about where your money lives and who holds the keys.
At a glance
| Polymarket | Kalshi | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A crypto prediction market on the Polygon blockchain. Shown as Polymarket in the app. | A CFTC-regulated US exchange (a designated contract market). |
| Currency | USDC.e, a dollar stablecoin on Polygon (wrapped to pUSD when orders are placed). | US dollars. |
| Where your money sits | In your own Polymarket account, technically a smart-contract wallet on Polygon that belongs to you. | In your own Kalshi account. |
| How you connect | The app helps you set up your Polymarket account and grant HiveTrade bounded signing access: it can place orders for your copies, and it is not authorized to withdraw. | You create a Full access API key in your own Kalshi account and paste it into HiveTrade. It can trade and move collateral between balances inside your Kalshi account, but it cannot withdraw. You can revoke it at any time. |
| Member account eligibility | Polymarket's own eligibility rules apply (it restricts some regions, including the US). This is separate from Captain payout verification. | Kalshi verifies you as its account holder. This is separate from Captain payout verification. |
| How settlement works | Polymarket resolves and settles on-chain; HiveTrade redeems your winning position into your Polymarket account. | Kalshi resolves the market and credits winning contracts to your cash automatically, with nothing to claim. |
| Fees | Polymarket's own fees apply, plus a HiveTrade trading fee on each order, collected through Polymarket's builder programme. The rate is stated once, in the Terms; it is charged on the order amount, never on your profit. | Kalshi's own trading fee applies. There is no HiveTrade fee on Kalshi orders; Kalshi Hives earn HiveTrade subscription revenue only. |
| Order shape | Dollar-sized stakes. | Contracts in steps of 0.01, sized from your dollars and priced in cents. |
On either exchange, HiveTrade earns from monthly Hive subscriptions; on Polymarket only, it also earns the trading fee above. Neither HiveTrade nor a Captain takes a share of your trading profits on either exchange.
Captains selling paid subscriptions also complete payout and identity setup, regardless of their Hive's exchange. See paid tiers.
Polymarket Hives
Your deposit goes into your own Polymarket account, a smart-contract wallet on Polygon that you own. HiveTrade holds bounded, delegated signing access to that account: it places orders on Polymarket while your budget is live and runs steps inside your account such as wrapping funds and redeeming winnings. Withdrawals are not part of it and need your own signature every time. When a market resolves, Polymarket settles on-chain and HiveTrade redeems the winning position back into your Polymarket account.
Polymarket applies its own region restrictions, and HiveTrade honours that list: the app checks your region before a Polymarket Hive can be backed.
Kalshi Hives
Your money never leaves your own Kalshi account. You connect it by creating an API key in Kalshi and pasting it into HiveTrade. HiveTrade stores the key encrypted, shows you only a short fingerprint of it, and uses it to place orders in your account. The key can trade and read, and it moves only the amount a copy needs between your own Kalshi balances (Kalshi keeps collateral separate for some market groups), but it cannot withdraw. Disconnect it in HiveTrade at any time to delete the stored copy, and revoke it in Kalshi to invalidate it at the exchange.
Before HiveTrade places any order in your Kalshi account, you accept an explicit execution consent for that Hive. Until you do, HiveTrade places no order through that connection.
Orders are placed in your account in steps of 0.01 contract (as many as your amount buys, Kalshi's fee included) at the real filled price; each order fills right away, in full or in part, or is cancelled. When Kalshi resolves a market it credits winning contracts to your cash itself. There is no claim step, no wallet, and no on-chain transaction. Funding and withdrawing happen in Kalshi's own app; HiveTrade never withdraws your cash and never handles fiat.
One Hive, one exchange
A Captain who wants to publish calls on both exchanges runs two Hives, one per exchange, and each has its own members, tiers, and calls. As a member, you back each Hive separately with the account at that Hive's exchange. The exchange is shown on every Hive before you back it.
See Your money & wallet for the full picture of what HiveTrade can and can't do with your money on each exchange.