Cboe Revives S&P 500 Binary Options to Rival Polymarket
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- Cboe is reintroducing S&P 500 binary options under a new 'Cboe Predicts' product suite, reviving a line it first listed in 2008 and shelved when the last contract expired in 2017.
- The new contracts include a 'plus' variant built on a vertical spread, letting traders collect partial payouts as the index moves rather than the traditional all-or-nothing outcome.
- Interactive Brokers will carry the binary contracts with Charles Schwab adding them later this year, and CEO Milan Galik said investors increasingly want products that let them 'express a specific view on future events and market outcomes.'
- Polymarket and Kalshi already host similar S&P 500 bets — one Kalshi year-end contract has more than $4 million in open volume — with Polymarket running onchain in USDC versus Cboe's regulated, broker-distributed model.
- Meta is building its own prediction-market app and Nasdaq has clearance to list binary index options later this year, signaling broader Wall Street interest in the format.
- Cboe's same-day S&P 500 options already make up about 30% of U.S. options volume, underscoring demand for fast, outcome-based trades the new binary products aim to capture.
Why it matters: Cboe and Charles Schwab are funneling Wall Street's distribution muscle into a format crypto-native Polymarket popularized, with Interactive Brokers CEO Milan Galik noting investors want simple yes/no views. With Nasdaq and Meta also piling in and a Kalshi year-end S&P contract carrying $4 million in volume, prediction markets are moving from crypto rails into mainstream brokerage accounts.
