Cantor Fitzgerald brings institutional trading to Kalshi
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- Cantor Fitzgerald announced it will serve as a broker organizing block trades on Kalshi's event contracts for its clients, making it one of the first investment firms offering institutional access to the prediction market platform.
- Susquehanna International Group will provide pricing and liquidity as market maker for the trades; its head of business development Joe Grubb said institutional risk transfer is the next step for prediction markets' material growth.
- Kalshi completed the first block trade on an event contract exchange back in April and has rolled out a series of partnerships and initiatives this year aimed at attracting professional investors.
- Cantor can request that Kalshi design new custom markets for clients, but Kalshi spokesperson Elisabeth Diana said any new market must be submitted to the CFTC and have sufficient liquidity.
- Client interest is likely concentrated in Kalshi's climate, weather, and economic indicator markets, according to Diana — a notable expansion beyond the sports-related event contracts that have driven retail growth on the platform until now.
- Pascal Bandelier, Cantor co-CEO and global head of equities, said institutional participation had lagged because investors lacked the ability to transact at scale on a regulated exchange.
Why it matters: Cantor and Susquehanna are wiring Wall Street infrastructure — block trading and dedicated market-making — into a market previously dominated by retail sports bettors, giving hedge funds a regulated, scalable venue for event contracts. The expansion from sports into climate, weather, and economic indicators opens prediction markets to institutional hedging and speculation strategies that could meaningfully grow daily volume.
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