Prediction-market company Kalshi supported a University of Chicago student demonstration this month seeking repeal of the Onion Futures Act of 1958, a statute that bars futures on onions and, after a later amendment, on movie box-office receipts^1,2.

The New York Times, writing Friday, said the law grew out of a 1950s scheme to manipulate onion prices and that onions and box-office receipts remain off-limits for prediction markets¹. The Times said Kalshi has been valued at $40 billion and that co-founder and chief executive Tarek Mansour has criticized the onion-futures ban¹.

The Chicago Maroon reported that about 30 undergraduates and Kalshi affiliates gathered Oct. 19 outside CME Group headquarters in Chicago's Loop². Student organizer Adam Ash, a co-founder of the For Our Futures group, told the Maroon that Kalshi paid for a bus from campus and provided branded merchandise and breakfast after contacting the group two days earlier².

Ash told the Maroon the campaign was about whether onion farmers should be able to hedge like growers of other crops². He said the group did not have a firm position on box-office speculation but welcomed further regulation of those markets².

The Maroon said a 2010 amendment added the box-office ban after lobbying by the Motion Picture Association of America, which argued such contracts could be open to insider manipulation². Repeal would let U.S. users of platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket trade onion prices and opening-weekend results, the Maroon reported².

The Times said Kalshi paid for the protest bus and sent representatives, citing the Maroon¹. Whether Congress will take up repeal, and how Kalshi would use any change, was not established in the accounts reviewed^1,2.