Docs

Connecting your Polymarket or Kalshi account

Live trading needs a one-time connection to the venue. Polymarket connects through your browser wallet; Kalshi connects through an API key. You can connect from Settings, from the Connect accounts option in the avatar menu, or inline the first time you place a live trade.

Where to find it

Open Settings and scroll to the connection cards, or click your avatar and choose Connect accounts. Both show the same two cards with their current status, and each card has a disconnect option once linked.

The account connections panel in Settings showing a Polymarket card and a Kalshi card, each with connection status and a Connect button.
Connection cards in Settings. Green means linked and working.

Connect Polymarket

Orca trades Polymarket through the same wallet you use on polymarket.com. Orders are signed in your wallet, in your browser, so your keys never leave it and Orca never takes custody of funds.

  1. Click Connect on the Polymarket card and pick your wallet (MetaMask, WalletConnect, and other browser wallets are supported).
  2. Use the wallet that holds your Polymarket account. Orca detects your Polymarket profile from the wallet address; if the wallet has never used Polymarket, Orca walks you through creating the account there first.
  3. Approve the connection prompts in your wallet. After that, the wallet card in any live Polymarket portfolio shows your tradeable USDC balance.
  • Funds are USDC in your Polymarket account on the Polygon network.
  • Every order prompts a signature in your wallet, so nothing can trade without your approval.
  • Filled and pending orders also appear on polymarket.com under your portfolio, exactly as if you had placed them there.

Connect Kalshi

Kalshi has no wallet flow; instead you create an API key in your Kalshi account and paste it into Orca once. Orca verifies the key against your live Kalshi balance before saving anything, so a successful connect means it really works.

  1. In your Kalshi account settings on kalshi.com, create a new API key with read and trade scopes. Kalshi shows the RSA private key exactly once.
  2. Back in Orca, click Connect on the Kalshi card and paste the key ID and the full private key, including the BEGIN and END lines.
  3. Orca checks the key against Kalshi and shows your available cash to confirm the link. Done.
The Connect your Kalshi account dialog with fields for the API key ID and RSA private key, numbered setup steps, and a note explaining the key is stored encrypted.
The Kalshi connect dialog. The key is verified against your balance before it is saved.

Note

Your private key is encrypted at rest, only ever used on Polywhaler's servers to sign your requests, and never shown again or sent to the browser. It can place trades on your account, so treat it like a password. You can revoke the key on Kalshi at any time, or disconnect in Orca, and your positions stay on Kalshi untouched.

Disconnecting and reconnecting

  • Disconnecting removes Orca's access only. Your funds and positions stay on the venue, and your portfolio history in Orca is kept.
  • If a Kalshi key stops working (for example you revoked it), Orca treats the account as not connected and offers a clean reconnect. Create a fresh key on Kalshi and paste it in.
  • One connection covers all your live portfolios on that venue; you never need to connect per portfolio.

Once connected, head back to Live trading to place your first order.