Cantor Fitzgerald will serve as broker for its 3,000 institutional clients trading on Kalshi's prediction markets, with Susquehanna International Group providing liquidity as market maker. The arrangement marks a major step in institutional adoption of event contracts.
Cantor Fitzgerald will give its 3,000 institutional clients access to Kalshi's prediction markets, with Susquehanna International Group providing liquidity as market maker.
"Prediction markets are growing rapidly, but institutional participation has not kept pace because investors have lacked the ability to transact at scale on a regulated exchange. The liquidity is here," Pascal Bandelier, co-CEO and global head of equities at Cantor, said.
Cantor will serve as broker, organizing block trades on Kalshi's event contracts for its clients. Block trades are large, privately negotiated transactions typically executed outside public markets to avoid price volatility, a standard feature of trading by large Wall Street firms. Susquehanna will provide pricing and liquidity as market maker in these trades. Joe Grubb, head of business development at Susquehanna, sees institutional risk transfer as the next step for prediction markets' material growth.
The arrangement marks the latest step by Kalshi to appeal to Wall Street after retail traders drove its rise, primarily through sports-related event contracts. Kalshi completed its first block trade on an event contract exchange in April and has announced a series of partnerships and internal initiatives this year to give institutional clients comfort with participating in the novel asset class.
Cantor first reached out to Kalshi a few months back, Kalshi spokesperson Elisabeth Diana said. The global investment bank can request that the prediction market design new markets for clients to trade on. "We will submit it to the CFTC and we have to make sure there is enough liquidity," Diana said. Clients would be interested in Kalshi's climate, weather, and economic indicator markets.
Cantor's clients range from family offices to hedge funds, with full access to Kalshi's suite of events-based, yes-or-no contracts tied to weather, commodities, and corporate results, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the arrangement.
The entry of Cantor and Susquehanna into prediction markets could significantly boost trading volumes and liquidity on Kalshi as institutional capital flows into event contracts. The platform's expansion beyond retail sports betting into climate, weather, and economic indicators gives hedge funds a new venue for hedging macro risks, while the CFTC oversight provides a regulated framework for block trades. For Cantor, the move extends its equities business into a fast-growing asset class, while Susquehanna's market-making role positions the firm at the center of price discovery in event contracts.
The partnership also marks a broader shift in how Wall Street views prediction markets as a legitimate financial instrument rather than a retail curiosity. With Cantor's distribution network and Susquehanna's trading infrastructure, Kalshi gains the institutional credibility needed to attract larger order flow. The ability for Cantor to request custom market designs means hedge funds can now trade on specific outcomes relevant to their portfolios, from weather patterns affecting energy prices to economic data releases that move bond yields.
The move also pressures competing prediction market platforms to develop institutional-grade infrastructure. As hedge funds gain access to Kalshi's regulated event contracts through Cantor's brokerage network, other platforms will need to offer similar block trade capabilities and market-making arrangements to attract professional capital.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
