Hassan Maishera
TL;DR
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Cantor Fitzgerald will offer approximately 3,000 institutional clients access to block trades in Kalshi prediction markets.
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Susquehanna International Group will provide pricing and liquidity, while Cantor will act as the broker.
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The offering gives professional investors access to event contracts through a CFTC-regulated exchange.
Cantor Fitzgerald is building institutional-grade trading infrastructure around prediction markets as event contracts begin attracting greater interest from professional investors.
The financial services firm announced on Wednesday that it plans to give roughly 3,000 institutional clients access to block trading on Kalshi.
The move makes Cantor one of the first full-service investment banks to facilitate institutional block trades in event contracts listed on a Commodity Futures Trading Commission-regulated exchange.
Cantor Brings Wall Street Infrastructure to Kalshi
Under the arrangement, Cantor will act as the broker, helping institutional clients arrange and execute large prediction-market transactions.
Susquehanna International Group, one of Kalshi’s market makers, will provide pricing and liquidity for the trades.
This structure is intended to address one of the primary obstacles preventing institutional investors from entering prediction markets: the ability to complete large transactions efficiently on a regulated platform.
“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,” Pascal Bandelier, co-CEO and global head of equities at Cantor, said.
“The liquidity is here,” Bandelier added.
Block trades are privately negotiated transactions involving substantial positions that are executed away from the platform’s standard public order book.
They allow institutions to complete large trades without causing significant price movements or revealing their full intentions to the broader market before execution.
Offering block trading through Cantor could make Kalshi’s event contracts more practical for hedge funds, asset managers and other professional investors seeking sizable exposure.
Cantor’s involvement also introduces the brokerage and execution infrastructure institutions typically expect when trading traditional financial instruments.
Prediction Markets Evolve Beyond Retail Betting
Prediction markets have historically been viewed primarily as retail-focused products closely associated with wagering.
Platforms such as Kalshi and rival Polymarket initially concentrated much of their activity around elections, sporting events and relatively small retail trades.
However, the sector is gradually evolving into a broader financial market that could allow institutions to trade or hedge risks associated with real-world events.
Contracts tied to economic indicators, commodity prices, regulatory decisions and geopolitical developments could help businesses offset exposures that are difficult to hedge through conventional derivatives.
For example, a company whose revenue depends on a particular policy outcome or economic event could potentially use an event contract to reduce the financial impact of an unfavorable result.
Kalshi has been working to broaden its product range and attract more professional traders.
The CFTC-regulated exchange completed its first block trade earlier this year, demonstrating that its event contracts can support larger institutional transactions.
Kalshi has also partnered with Interactive Brokers, whose platform serves professional traders, hedge funds and other sophisticated market participants.
Cantor’s new offering could further strengthen that strategy by connecting Kalshi with thousands of institutional clients through an established investment bank.
Susquehanna expects the next stage of prediction-market expansion to come from institutions transferring large amounts of event-related risk.
“We believe the next area of material growth for prediction markets will be large institutional risk transfer,” Joe Grubb, head of business development at Susquehanna Predictions, said.
Institutional participation could deepen liquidity, support larger transactions and encourage platforms to develop contracts addressing more sophisticated financial risks.
Cantor’s entrance suggests prediction markets are beginning to move closer to mainstream Wall Street infrastructure, even as the sector continues to face questions over whether its products should be treated as financial derivatives or gambling instruments.
