Cantor Fitzgerald announced Wednesday that it has launched institutional trading services for prediction markets, making it one of the first full-service investment banks to give institutional clients access to block trading in event contracts on a CFTC-regulated exchange.

In its new role, Cantor will act as an introducing broker, arranging and facilitating institutional-size block trades in event contracts. The service will allow clients to negotiate block trades at a single price through Kalshi's block trading framework, away from the central order book. Block trading is a long-established mechanism in equities and other institutional markets, allowing large positions to change hands at a negotiated price without exposing the full order to the public book.

Kalshi operates as a regulated exchange under the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), offering event contracts that let participants take positions on the outcomes of real-world events such as elections, economic data releases, and other developments. Prediction markets drew mainstream attention during the 2024 US presidential election, when trading volumes surged across platforms, though activity has so far been driven largely by retail traders and institutional access has remained limited.

Cantor is also collaborating with Susquehanna Predictions, part of the Susquehanna International Group (SIG), a global quantitative trading and market-making firm, to provide institutional-scale pricing and liquidity.

Cantor said it is applying the institutional trading model it has developed across equities and fixed income to a new regulated asset class, and will run the business within its Global Markets division. The firm will initially facilitate block trades on Kalshi, with additional venues expected to follow. The launch is the latest sign of established financial firms moving into event contracts: brokerage platform Robinhood began offering event contracts around the 2024 election and has since expanded into sports markets, while crypto exchange Coinbase added a prediction markets offering with Kalshi in 2025.

"Cantor has spent more than eighty years building institutional access to new markets, and prediction markets are the next one," stated Pascal Bandelier, co-chief executive and global head of equities at Cantor.

"The liquidity is here. With the launch of block trading, institutional investors can now access block trading in event contracts through an institutional intermediary they know and trust."

Joe Grubb, head of business development at Susquehanna Predictions, said the next area of material growth for prediction markets would be large institutional risk transfer, adding that the firm can price and execute custom contracts for counterparties seeking to hedge risks unserved by traditional insurance markets.

Cantor Fitzgerald, founded in 1945 and headquartered in New York, has a long history as an intermediary in institutional markets, including equities and fixed income.

Source: LeapRate