Global military spending is often measured in massive national budgets, where the United States and China dominate the conversation.

But looking at defense spending on a per-person basis tells a very different story, one where smaller countries rise to the top.

This visualization, via Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti, ranks major countries by how much they spent on defense per citizen in 2024, revealing which nations invest the most in military power relative to their population – and how countries like the U.S. compare when spending is measured per person rather than in total dollars.

Data comes from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

Why Israel Leads the World in Defense Spending Per Capita

Israel ranks first, spending nearly $5,000 per person on defense in 2024.

This figure reflects the country’s ongoing security challenges and mandatory military service.

Despite a total defense budget of $47 billion – small compared to global superpowers – the per-person cost is unmatched.

Below are the world’s 30 largest military spenders, ranked by defense spending per capita:

Several smaller or wealthy nations rank near the top of the list. Singapore spends over $2,500 per person, driven by its strategic location and emphasis on technological superiority. Norway and Denmark also appear in the top 10, supported by high incomes and growing commitments to NATO.

How Major Powers Compare

The U.S. ranks second overall, with nearly $2,900 spent per person, reflecting both its enormous military budget and large population.

China, by contrast, ranks much lower at $221 per capita despite spending more than $300 billion in total.

Meanwhile, European powers like Germany, France, and the U.K. cluster in the middle of the ranking, balancing defense commitments with larger populations.

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out Ranked: Countries With the Highest Cost of Violence on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

With the start of the Winter Games, a story this week resurrected a controversy from the last Summer Olympics. Previously, Olympic officials and pundits denounced those who objected to Algerian boxer Imane Khelif competing as a woman, saying that she was born a female. Female boxers withdrew from the competition rather than fight Khelif. Now, the boxer has admitted to having XY chromosomes and is taking hormone treatments to lower testosterone levels for the next Olympics.

At the time, IOC chief Thomas Bach said: “We have two boxers… who were born as women, raised as women, who have passports as women, who have competed for many years as women. And this is a clear definition of a woman.”

In 2023, the International Boxing Association (IBA) President Umar Kremlev explained the IBA’s decision to disqualify Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting and Algeria’s Imane Khelif from the 2023 Women’s World Boxing Championships. While there remains confusion on the testing used by the IBA (or the reliability of those tests), it issued this statement:

“Based on DNA tests, we identified a number of athletes who tried to trick their colleagues into posing as women. According to the results of the tests, it was proved that they have XY chromosomes. Such athletes were excluded from competition.”

Various media also did their own “fact checks” with outlets like USA Today stating that the “outcries from anti-trans celebrities and politicians” were based on false claims and the boxers were born women.

NBC also cited “attacks from anti-LGBTQ+ conservatives online who claim they’re transgender.”  It stressed that the IBA could not be trusted since the IOC banned the group. (IBA was banned for corruption and financial-related issues).

I wrote about the controversy, criticizing the lack of consistent testing and simple confirmation of the XY chromosomal allegation.

Khelif still insists on competing against female boxers and added:

“Doctors and teachers decide. We all have different genetics, all different hormone levels. I’m not a transsexual. My difference, it is natural. I’m like that. I did nothing to change the way nature did to me. That’s why I’m not afraid. For the next Games, if you have to take a test, I will submit to it. I have no problem with that. I already did this test. I contacted World Boxing, I sent them my medical record, my hormonal tests, everything. But I had no answer. I’m not hiding, I’m not refusing testing. What I don’t understand is why we want to make my story so bigger.”

Notably, Khelif previously filed a criminal complaint against JK Rowling and Elon Musk for cyberbullying.  It is another example of how free speech is being eviscerated in Europe through the criminalization of political speech. I cannot find a record of the complaint’s status.

Sam Darnold just WON the Super Bowl…and LOST $71k because it was in California

Watch as Boomer Esiason explains why the players should block any future Super Bowls in California…

🚨 ABSOLUTELY INSANE: Sam Darnold just WON the Super Bowl.. and LOST $71k because it was in California

California’s jock tax bills him $249K

Boomer Esiason: The NFLPA should shut down ANY future Super Bowls in California!

Super Bowl is in LA Next Year

pic.twitter.com/9VWqSWmOse

— Alec Lace (@AlecLace) February 9, 2026

Here’s SchiffSovereign’s James Hickman to explain the farce…

Yesterday, the Seattle Seahawks beat the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.

From a financial perspective, each Seahawks player will take home $178,000—payment for that particular game.

Now, given that the Superbowl was played in California—and the players earned money playing in the game— it’s reasonable for the state of California to tax that specific income.

But that’s not the way California looks at it.

Instead, the state will go back in time, all the way to the start of the NFL season in September, and take their ‘fair share’ of the players’ ENTIRE salaries over the entire season.

This is what’s known as the state’s “jock tax,” in which they tax non-resident professional athletes based on the number of “duty days” they spend in the state—traveling, practicing, attending meetings, or playing in a game.

Both teams arrived in California last Sunday, so each player will log at least eight duty days in the state just for the Super Bowl.

They then divide those California duty days over the entire season, and you end up with a percentage. If a player spends, say, 7% of his duty days in California over the season, then the state claims the right to tax 7% of his entire annual salary— at California’s top marginal rate of 13.3%!

This is pretty crazy given that the players only earned $178,000 for that game.

But in the case of Seattle quarterback Sam Darnold, he’ll end up owing Gavin Newsom roughly $249,000 in state taxes this year.

In other words, Sam Darnold will LOSE over $70,000.

I doubt anyone will shed any tears over this (including Darnold). But it’s perfectly consistent with California’s general attitude: dig into absolutely everything they can get their hands on and take as much as humanly possible.

Sam Darnold didn’t have a choice about the venue. But a growing number of people and businesses who are free to choose whether or not to remain in California are getting the hell out.

California has recorded a net loss of residents for six consecutive years— roughly 216,000 people in 2025 alone. Since 2019, more than 200 major businesses have relocated out of the state, including Oracle, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Charles Schwab, and Chevron.

Even Hollywood is crumbling; on-location film and TV production in Los Angeles hit its lowest level since the pandemic shutdown— down 16.1% in 2025—with 42,000 entertainment jobs vanishing in just two years. Production has scattered to Georgia, the UK, Canada, and Australia, where tax incentives are far more generous. California now ranks sixth among preferred filming locations.

And California’s response is almost comically predictable. Rather than examine why people and businesses keep leaving, they propose ever more medieval measures to squeeze those who remain— or punish those who try to go.

There’s a ballot measure in the works for a “one-time” 5% wealth tax on billionaires, retroactive to January 1, 2026. Exit tax proposals have been floated to penalize wealthy residents who dare to leave.

And how does California spend all this money they confiscate?

The state budget is a nearly $500 billion—one of the largest in the country. Yet they can’t manage to make ends meet. Ever. And they squander it on some of the most insane programs.

Over the past five years, the state has poured $24 billion into homelessness programs— and a state audit found they didn’t even bother to track whether the spending reduced homelessness.

(Homelessness actually got worse.)

The state’s high-speed rail project, now more than 15 years behind schedule, has burned through $15 billion without laying a single mile of high-speed track. The latest cost estimate to complete the project has ballooned to as much as $128 billion.

Meanwhile, California is spending an estimated $9.5 billion this year alone on healthcare— for illegal immigrants through Medi-Cal.

And rather than cooperate with federal immigration enforcement, Governor Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta launched an online portal where Californians can report federal ICE agents for “misconduct”— essentially using tax dollars to help obstruct immigration enforcement.

Crazy that this man—Gavin Newsom—is the current front-runner for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination. He is THE standard bearer for the political Left.

Housing is unaffordable. Crime has surged. Unemployment is above the national average. Businesses and billionaires are fleeing.

His only real policy is to confiscate as much as possible from productive people, waste it on obscene levels of misspending, and then gaslight everyone about what a spectacular job he’s doing.

Now he wants to do for the entire country what he’s done to California.

And if that happens, there will be no Texas or Florida to escape to. The jock tax mentality— reach into every pocket, stake a claim on everything, punish anyone who tries to leave—becomes national policy.

A Sunday yoga class at Minneapolis CorePower Yoga studio turned into an unscripted protest earlier this month, as a group of enraged customers berated front-desk staff for not condemning federal immigration enforcement, prompting the Denver-based chain to ban one regular and agree to post anti-ICE signage in its studios.

Caught on camera and subsequently gone viral, the confrontation unfolded inside the CorePower studio lobby after a class let out. The video, posted by regular yogi Heather Anderson, 51, shows more than a dozen spandex-clad patrons “spontaneously” demanding answers from two visibly uncomfortable staffers over the company’s stance on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“Why are you being silent? Let’s hear it – loud and proud, baby!” Anderson demands, as she films a blonde staffer identified only as “Delaney,” amid approving snaps and cheers from the crowd.

Anderson repeatedly presses the staffer for a corporate position on ICE, dismissing the employee’s attempt to “take a pause” as unacceptable. When a second employee tries to speak, the group grows louder, with one student accusing the company of being “complicit” in violent federal immigration actions.

This is the raw video of the incident in a CorePower yoga location in Minneapolis, women members throwing a tantrum bc corporate would not denounce ICE. We have a program with white women in this country. The indoctrination and programming runs deep. Note they even snap fingers… pic.twitter.com/yop5I1BzAh

— Richard Parker of The Raven’s Call (@astheravencalls) February 6, 2026

“You’re not being berated – you’re being asked hard questions,” Anderson snaps, before demanding the return of an anti-ICE sign she says was taken down from the studio’s front door.

Throughout the nearly six-minute clip, Lionel Richie’s “All Night Long” blares in the background as the crowd continues its vocal denunciations of the staff, who appear unsure how to respond. At one point, a woman in the group declares, “People are being murdered and abducted and attacked here — this is our community and this is bulls-t!”

The routine protest-cum-yoga-studio takedown gained traction after Anderson said patrons caught wind of rumors that corporate had ordered the removal of previously displayed anti-ICE signage. “Every single business in Minneapolis has something on their door right now — it’s not like we were asking for something out of the loop,” she told The Post.

In the aftermath, CorePower issued a series of Instagram Stories saying the company did not support the “violent ICE raids happening in Minneapolis” and that it had distributed approved signage to its studios. Anderson, however, was banned from the location after the incident.

Despite the ban, Anderson stood by her actions. “What I said in that video landed,” she insisted, adding that when one side refuses to engage constructively, activists are forced into a “self-preservation stance.”

Via Gun Owners of America,

A member of Gun Owners of America was recently denied a firearm by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) for writing “exercise my God given right” as their reason for manufacturing the firearm.

Our member wasn’t doing anything illegal; they were not attempting to manufacture something that was banned in their state of residence. They weren’t building anything that is banned federally, and they were complying with all regulations set forth by ATF during the registration process.

Even though no statute or regulation requires it, ATF’s Form 1, Box 4(i) demands that gun owners “specify why you intend to make [a] firearm.”

This GOA member wrote:

As a law-abiding US citizen with no criminal record, you don’t need a reason to purchase or manufacture a firearm. That’s what the Second Amendment is for. Yet ATF denied our member’s application for this exact reason.

Of course, ATF always forgets the “shall not be infringed” part.

As you can clearly see, our member’s Second Amendment rights were denied by bureaucrats because of an “insufficient reason.”

How is the desire to exercise one’s God-given rights an insufficient justification to exercise one’s God-given rights?

This is yet another clear reason why the ATF needs to be defunded and abolished entirely. The Second Amendment guarantees the exercise of our God given right to keep and bear arms.

Stating otherwise is a complete tyrannical falsehood.

That’s why we at Gun Owners of America just filed a notice of supplemental authority in our One Big Beautiful Lawsuit, using this as an example of government weaponizing the NFA against law abiding gun owners.

In our filing, we dismantle the government’s assertions that the National Firearms Act creates only a “modest burden” on the Second Amendment and that the NFA’s registration requirements are comparable to a “shall-issue” permitting system in pro-gun states.

ATF’s blatant denial of our member’s Second Amendment rights shatters this narrative completely.

Instead, the government treats the NFA’s registration requirements as a “may-issue” system – a subjective determination on who is allowed to own these firearms by government employees.

These “may-issue” systems were explicitly declared to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court thanks to the Bruen decision. We think SCOTUS should rule the same here and abolish the NFA’s registration requirements forever.

We just reported this misbehavior by @ATFHQ to Judge Hendrix in our $0 NFA lawsuit.

These tyrants can’t claim that the “Second Amendment protects… suppressors” and that the NFA is a “shall issue regime” & then arbitrarily deny the right to make a suppressor. https://t.co/JPVUJxa6vn pic.twitter.com/qU5PuSJi3p

— Gun Owners Foundation (@GunFoundation) February 9, 2026

We’re glad to be fighting on behalf of our member, because nobody should be denied for exercising their Second Amendment rights by the tyrannical bureaucrats at ATF.

If you aren’t already, please consider becoming a GOA member, so that we can fight on your behalf if the ATF attempts to deny your Second Amendment rights.

Toyota is reshaping its leadership once again, naming Kenta Kon as its next chief executive, with the transition set for April 1. Kon, currently the company’s chief financial officer, will step into the top role as part of a broader management realignment, according to Car & Driver.

The move shifts current CEO Koji Sato into a dual position as vice chairman and chief industry officer. Toyota says the change is designed to reduce Sato’s workload, especially after he took on the chairmanship of Japan’s main auto industry group earlier this year. Under the new structure, he will “focus on the broader industry, including Toyota, as Vice Chairman and CIO, while Kon will focus on internal company management as President and CEO.”

Kon succeeds Sato just three years after he assumed the role following the departure of Akio Toyoda, who stepped down in 2023 after more than a decade leading the company founded by his grandfather. That earlier transition marked a shift away from family leadership, and this latest change continues Toyota’s evolution.

The report says that industry observers see Kon’s promotion as a signal that Toyota is emphasizing financial strategy. Automotive News has described him as a “longtime confidant” of Toyoda, and his background in finance contrasts with his predecessors’ engineering-focused careers. Sato, for example, previously led Lexus and Toyota’s Gazoo Racing division, helping expand the company’s performance brand and develop models like the GR Corolla and Supra.

Kon’s former role as CFO will now be filled by executive vice president Yoichi Miyazaki, who has held the position before.

At a news conference in Tokyo, Kon made clear that profitability will be central to his leadership. “My role will be establishing this good profit structure, this foundation, so that the people can take on courageous challenges,” he said. “I want to use that money for the future of Toyota.”

With Kon focusing on internal management and financial strength, and Sato turning his attention to industry-wide issues, Toyota Motor Corporation is betting that a clearer division of responsibilities will help guide the automaker through its next phase of growth and competition.

Authored by Anders Corr via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Commentary

Google has sacked a Chinese company’s global proxy network, which constitutes part of a Chinese cyber weapon aimed at U.S. and allied critical infrastructure and telecommunications.

The company, Ipidea, allegedly has proxy malware that silently piggybacked on millions of legitimate software downloads by regular U.S. consumers to their phones, tablets, computers, televisions, and projectors. The internet bandwidth of these and other victims is then rented by such proxy networks to malign state actors, criminals, and others seeking to use the internet anonymously. Such networks are a national security threat of the greatest magnitude.

The Google takedown required a federal court order to remove dozens of the company’s domains and apps from approximately 9 million Android devices. Ipidea does not reveal the name of its CEO or headquarters location, which is somewhere in China. However, it does admit to operations in 220 countries using tens of millions of devices. Given the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) unprecedented surveillance in China, Ipidea likely has the full support of the regime. It could be a full-fledged Chinese intelligence operation.

The attacks are the tip of an iceberg that is sinking the privacy and security of American citizens, U.S. allies, and the future of democracy. One focus of CCP cyberattacks is hundreds of high-value critical infrastructure targets, such as municipal water companies, electricity plants, and ports. Another focus is on government operations, including the U.S. National Guard, National Nuclear Security Administration, and Congressional committees key to U.S. foreign and national security policy.

China’s hacker assaults are often given various storm names, such as Salt Typhoon and Volt Typhoon. They allegedly targeted approximately 200 U.S. companies and gathered the private data of almost all Americans. The targets include small municipal water and electric companies that have little or nothing to do with national security. They have no military bases or other sensitive sites nearby.

The only plausible reason for targeting such civilian infrastructure is to target civilians during a war, which is a violation of international norms. In some cases, exported devices and malware include the ability to hack hospitals or flood the water supply with poisonous treatment chemicals at high concentrations.

In December 2024, CCP representatives admitted to Biden administration officials of hacking U.S. infrastructure, including ports and water utilities. The regime representatives said the reason was U.S. support for Taiwan. This was probably a veiled threat against the United States to warn it off from support for Taiwan in case of war.

Hackers in China are similarly targeting the critical infrastructure of U.S. allies, like the United Kingdom, Australia, and Singapore. The hackers also target China’s allies, including Russia, to acquire data about the war in Ukraine. Battlefield data on the performance of different weapons systems is useful to Beijing’s military planning and armaments production. In the worst of cases, foreign weapons could be hacked and used against their own civilians.

Many Southeast Asian countries are also targets, and Taiwan’s chip industry is of particular interest.

In November, Anthropic revealed that state-sponsored hackers in China had used its AI technology in history’s first AI-powered hack, of about 30 U.S. companies and government agencies. The companies included technology, chemical, and financial companies. While Chinese agents allegedly directed and oversaw the attack, as much as 90 percent of them were carried out by Claude, Anthropic’s AI model, acting independently.

The latest Claude models require minimal programming by human coders as they can code programs themselves in response to normal language prompts by humans. The risk of this technology in the hands of a totalitarian state like China is incalculably high.

An international coalition of government cybersecurity agencies, including those from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and Japan, is publicly identifying individual Chinese companies for their hacking activity and provision of cyber products to China’s military and intelligence agencies.

The warning focuses on Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actors in China that target “telecommunications, government, transportation, lodging, and military infrastructure networks” globally. France was conspicuously absent as a signer. In 2024, China’s APT31 hacking group allegedly targeted seven French parliamentarians.

The coalition’s warning is good, but not nearly enough to stop China’s highly lucrative practice of hacking pretty much anyone and everyone. CCP hacking will continue to weaken the United States and its allies until direct repercussions are imposed, including through counter-hacking and other measures designed to inflict significant economic damage on the regime.

These repercussions should be at the all-of-China level, not against particular companies. Sanctioning individual companies is ineffective, as they simply do the bidding of the CCP. Real repercussions should instead be imposed on the almost $20.7 trillion Chinese economy, and its almost $1.2 trillion in annual international trade. This should ideally be done to the financial benefit of the United States and U.S. allies as a form of economic compensation for previous harms done by the CCP. These harms include the COVID-19 pandemic, the fentanyl crisis, and intellectual property theft. The longer America waits to act, the more powerful the CCP becomes.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge. 

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

A powerful pro-ICE advertisement aired during Super Bowl 60, spotlighting the everyday heroes in Immigration and Customs Enforcement who risk their lives to protect communities from violent criminals.

The spot, which ran right after Bad Bunny’s trash halftime performance, portrayed ICE agents as friends, neighbors, fathers, veterans, and Little League coaches dedicated to making America safer. Sponsored by the conservative group American Sovereignty, it struck a nerve with leftists already seething over recent ICE operations.

The 30-second spot opens with aerial views of American neighborhoods at sunset, cutting to scenes of ICE agents as family men and community members. Narration states: “These are Immigration and Customs Enforcement Officers. They are friends and neighbors, sons, fathers, their little league coaches and veterans… people who love this country. They are removing violent criminals from our streets and neighborhoods. It’s dangerous and difficult work, but ICE has one mission: to make America a safer place to live, and that’s what they’re doing. This is law enforcement. This is ICE.”

They’re people who love this country.

These are Immigration and Customs Enforcement Officers. pic.twitter.com/9PyEua3ojV

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 9, 2026

The ad comes amid heightened tensions around immigration enforcement, with ICE ramping up deportations of criminal aliens under the Trump administration. The commercial aimed to humanize agents often demonized by open borders advocates, emphasizing their role in removing threats from neighborhoods.

It also comes after Trump advocated a “softer touch” to immigration enforcement.

Leftists wasted no time venting their rage on social media, particularly on X, where unhinged reactions poured in.

Fuck that ICE Super Bowl ad

— Tzar (#cornwatch) ????? (@Gore2024) February 9, 2026

ICE AD FOR THR SUPER BOWL BITCH GET THR FUCK OUTTA HERE NIGGA pic.twitter.com/jgFcZCa6Sz

— itxmi (@the_Itxmi) February 9, 2026

Aw yes, paid for by American Sovereignty, a right-wing, just made up group that somehow is non-profit but found the funds to make a pro-ICE ad in a month and pay the exorbitant post-Halftime shows Super Bowl ad fee…mmhmm…fuck ICE. https://t.co/vYWpNuFowZ pic.twitter.com/E3olA5S29A

— Erin$Giant34 (@EGiant49) February 9, 2026

Yep. Theyre so proud that they cover their faces.

— Nunya234 (@Nunyab234) February 9, 2026

Some of those that work forces, are the same that burn crosses.

— PNWCatDaddy69 (@PNWCatDaddy69) February 9, 2026

Sometimes you love your country so much, you have to terrorize and occasionally murder its citizens

— Chris Miller (@hchrismiller) February 9, 2026

Did I just see a fucking ICE ad on my fucking Super Bowl commercials? LMAO

— Lawlbringer (@lawlbringer) February 9, 2026

These extreme responses highlight the desperation among open borders extremists, who view any support for law enforcement as a threat to their agenda.

This backlash echoes recent moves by prominent leftists to undermine ICE. Just days ago, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced training sessions for agitators on how to block ICE agents and doxx federal officials.

The Super Bowl ad is part of a larger push by American Sovereignty, which also placed provocative billboards in San Francisco praising ICE as “Defensive Player of the Year.” These efforts coincide with ICE’s intensified operations, including recent raids in Minneapolis that sparked leftist outrage after the shooting of an armed suspect.

Critics like AOC and her allies promote resistance tactics that endanger agents and obstruct justice, all while ignoring the victims of criminal aliens.

Democrats used to be all for immigration enforcement.

As ICE continues its vital work, ads like this one serve as a reminder: enforcing immigration laws isn’t optional – it’s essential to preserving American safety and sovereignty. Leftists can rage all they want, but the tide is turning against unchecked borders and spots like this push back against the madness.

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

Los Angeles spent about $418 million on homelessness programs in 2025, yet only a small share went toward helping people leave the streets for good, according to the New York Post. A recent City Hall report suggests most of the money supports short-term services that manage homelessness rather than resolve it.

The review, released as the city prepares major budget cuts, shows that hundreds of millions were directed to hygiene facilities, outreach teams, temporary housing, and vehicle-living programs with limited long-term success. These efforts often keep people in transitional situations instead of moving them into permanent homes.

The Post noted that councilwoman Monica Rodriguez condemned the system, saying, “We’re hemorrhaging money on a homelessness system that was never designed to succeed — and no one is being held accountable for the failure.”

She also argued that ineffective programs are protected instead of evaluated: “If we really wanted to do something about this crisis, we would be advancing real oversight, demanding results, and shutting down programs that don’t work — not protecting a system that keeps spending more while delivering less.”

One of the costliest efforts, Inside Safe, places people in motels and temporary housing at prices far above other programs. Rodriguez criticized its management, stating, “We know where a big pot of money is that isn’t being used wisely — and that’s Inside Safe.”

City officials warn that homelessness funding could fall short by nearly $250 million within two years, raising concerns about sustainability. Community advocate John Alle says the spending model focuses too much on services and too little on lasting change. “Services are a band-aid,” he said. “The numbers never go down. There are no results — and no consequences for mismanagement.”

Alle also accused city leaders of limiting public oversight: “We can’t even begin to calculate the total fraud until officials open their books. These are public funds, and they’re hiding from audits and accountability.”

Authored by Sam Bourgi via CoinTelegraph.com,

Jump Trading, a Chicago-based quantitative trading company, is reportedly set to acquire minority stakes in prediction market platforms Polymarket and Kalshi, underscoring growing institutional interest in the rapidly expanding sector.

The equity stakes would be obtained in exchange for providing trading liquidity on both platforms, Bloomberg reported Monday, citing people familiar with the discussions.

While the report did not disclose specific ownership percentages, Bloomberg said Jump’s stake in Polymarket would scale based on the liquidity the company ultimately provides.

Founded more than two decades ago, Jump Trading has long been a major player in proprietary financial trading and has expanded aggressively into digital assets. It has been active as both a market maker and venture investor in crypto, backing blockchain infrastructure projects and exchanges through its affiliated investment arms.

Polymarket and Kalshi are the two largest prediction market platforms, each commanding multibillion-dollar valuations following recent funding rounds.

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, Polymarket raised $2 billion from NYSE parent Intercontinental Exchange, valuing the company at $9 billion. In early December, Kalshi secured $1 billion in funding at an $11 billion valuation.

While both platforms allow users to trade on the outcomes of real-world events, they operate under different models. Polymarket is a decentralized platform built on the Polygon blockchain that enables onchain settlement of prediction contracts, whereas Kalshi operates as a centralized, federally regulated exchange in the United States.

Polymarket’s monthly volume has surged at the start of 2026. Source: Dune

Prediction markets gain traction, but still face regulatory hurdles

Prediction markets gained mainstream attention after Polymarket’s event contracts accurately forecast the outcome of the 2024 US presidential election, highlighting the sector’s potential as a real-time information and risk-pricing tool. Industry analysts now estimate that prediction markets could generate trillions of dollars in annual trading volume by the end of the decade.

Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, a research and consulting company specializing in the global gambling and gaming industry, has identified sports-related contracts as a major driver of that growth. Speaking to CNBC in December, Eilers & Krejcik partner emeritus Chris Grove said sports betting could account for nearly half of the sector’s projected expansion.

Despite Polymarket’s early lead, Kalshi had largely caught up, with trading volumes at similar levels as of October. Source: Messari

Despite the growth potential, Grove cautioned that legal and regulatory challenges could slow adoption. 

Kalshi, which operates as a federally regulated prediction market, has received approval from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission to run as a Designated Contract Market. However, the platform is facing pushback at the state level. Regulators in Nevada, Maryland, New Jersey and Ohio have challenged Kalshi’s offerings, triggering ongoing litigation and cease-and-desist actions.