Kalshi traders think Hormuz traffic won’t return to normal this year

Vessels off the coast of the Khor Fakkan Container Terminal, the only natural deep-sea port in the region and one of the major container ports in Sharjah Emirate, along the Gulf of Oman on June 28, 2026.

– | Afp | Getty Images

President Donald Trump said the ceasefire with Iran is “over” after the U.S. conducted strikes against the Islamic Republic following attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.

Now, traders on prediction market platform Kalshi are recalibrating their outlook for when they see traffic in the passageway returning to normal.

Speculators now see just a 44% chance that traffic flows will return to normal by Dec. 1. The earliest they forecast normal traffic by is Jan. 1, 2027, when odds rose to 53%.

Kalshi defines normal traffic flows as a 7-day moving average of transit calls through the strait above 60. The outcome is verified using data reported from IMF PortWatch.

Odds of when traffic will return to normal have tumbled sharply over the last few days. As recently as July 4, traders on Kalshi placed more than 50% odds that flows would return to normal by Oct. 1.

Traders on Polymarket are slightly more optimistic, with speculators there seeing a 59% chance that traffic flows return to normal in the vital maritime passage by Dec. 31. Polymarket uses the same definition and data as Kalshi to resolve contracts related to traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.

Traffic in the strait is “suddenly very far from normal,” Piper Sandler analyst Jan Stuart at Piper Sandler wrote in a Wednesday note.

“With the Strait back in play, global oil supply is again way short,” Stuart wrote. “Any hope of commercial insurers reducing ‘war risk’ assessments in months has been sunk.”