After the addition of maker fees on Kalshi combos, market makers have widened their spreads meaning that takers are bearing the cost of the fees.
Exactly what you'd expect from standard economic incidence analysis!
ALT Line and scatter plot titled 'Market Maker Edge for Select Uncorrelated Combos Relative to Pre-Fees Mean.' The y-axis shows edge change versus the pre-fee mean, in cents per contract; the x-axis spans August 18–22, 2026. Grey dots are hourly averages of market-maker edge on Kalshi combos priced between 20 and 80 cents, combining our fills with competitors' fills. A bold purple line is the fill-weighted 24-hour rolling average with a ±1 standard error band; a solid grey line marks zero (pre-fee baseline), a dashed vertical line marks the August 20 fee launch at 03:59 UTC, and an annotation marks the post mean of +0.42 cents. Before fees, the rolling line hovers near zero with slight upward drift. After fees go live, it climbs steeply for 12–18 hours, then holds flat near +0.4 cents: competitors moved prices about 0.4 cents further from our fair value once maker fees took effect.