Key Takeaways
- Cantor Fitzgerald is connecting approximately 3,000 institutional investors to Kalshi’s event contract platform
- The firm will serve as intermediary, facilitating large-volume block transactions on the CFTC-supervised exchange
- Susquehanna International Group will supply market liquidity and pricing support for institutional trades
- Institutional investors are targeting contracts linked to iPhone shipments and artificial intelligence infrastructure
- Kalshi has been actively courting institutional participation, executing its inaugural block transaction in early 2025
Cantor Fitzgerald has unveiled a strategic initiative to connect approximately 3,000 institutional investors with trading opportunities on Kalshi’s prediction market platform. The financial services firm will serve as an intermediary, facilitating the arrangement and execution of substantial block transactions in event-based contracts.
Susquehanna International Group, serving as Kalshi’s primary liquidity provider, will deliver pricing mechanisms and market depth for these institutional transactions. This collaboration positions Cantor among the pioneering full-service Wall Street firms to deliver such capabilities on an exchange regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Event-based prediction markets enable traders to engage with binary contracts linked to specific future outcomes. Contract subjects span diverse categories including meteorological patterns, commodity valuations, and quarterly corporate performance metrics.
According to Pascal Bandelier, co-CEO and global equities chief at Cantor, institutional appetite for these instruments is substantial. “The investor community we’ve engaged with has demonstrated significant enthusiasm for participating in prediction market opportunities,” Bandelier noted.
Institutional Investors Favor Direct Event Exposure
Major hedge funds are pursuing contracts directly tied to metrics like iPhone unit sales instead of traditional equity positions in Apple stock. Bandelier indicated that family offices are similarly investigating event contracts as hedging mechanisms for weather-related exposures and agricultural commodity risks including harvest yields and energy prices.
Joe Grubb, who leads business development at Susquehanna Predictions, highlighted additional applications including exposures related to AI infrastructure dependencies and computational capacity pricing.
Institutional participants will have the capability to request custom market creation. Kalshi and its collaborators have already initiated preliminary conversations with investors regarding potential contract specifications.
Kalshi’s Institutional Expansion Strategy
Kalshi executed its inaugural block transaction earlier in 2025, featuring a contract based on California carbon credit allowances that was custom-designed for that specific trade. The platform has also established a partnership with Interactive Brokers, a platform favored by professional traders and institutional fund managers.
Max Crowley, vice president overseeing business development at Kalshi, emphasized strong institutional interest. “We receive numerous inquiries from institutions saying they want to hedge particular event exposures, but they lack the execution framework,” Crowley explained.
Prediction markets have traditionally catered to retail participants, with trading volume concentrated in political elections and sporting events. Kalshi has been systematically expanding beyond these categories.
Bandelier stated from Cantor: “Prediction markets are experiencing rapid expansion, yet institutional engagement has lagged primarily because investors haven’t had mechanisms to execute at institutional scale on regulated platforms. That liquidity infrastructure now exists.”
This development represents an evolution in Wall Street’s perception of prediction markets, repositioning them from speculative betting platforms to legitimate trading and risk mitigation instruments.
Grubb concluded: “We anticipate the next significant growth phase for prediction markets will center on large-scale institutional risk transfer transactions.”
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