Cantor Fitzgerald and Susquehanna to Bring Institutional Trading to Kalshi's Prediction Markets

Cantor Fitzgerald will become one of the first investment firms to offer its clients institutional-scale trading on Kalshi, the regulated prediction market exchange, the companies announced Wednesday — a move that signals Wall Street's growing appetite for an asset class long dominated by retail traders.

Under the arrangement, Cantor Fitzgerald will act as a broker, organizing block trades on Kalshi's event contracts on behalf of its clients. Susquehanna International Group will serve as market maker, providing pricing and liquidity for those trades.

Block trades are large, privately negotiated transactions typically executed outside of public markets to minimize price volatility — a standard mechanism for major institutional players but one that has, until recently, been absent from prediction markets.

"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," said Pascal Bandelier, co-CEO and global head of equities at Cantor, in a statement.

Cantor first approached Kalshi several months ago, according to Kalshi spokesperson Elisabeth Diana. Beyond brokering existing contracts, Cantor can also request that Kalshi design new markets tailored to client demand. Any such proposals would require CFTC approval and sufficient liquidity, Diana said.

She noted that clients have expressed interest in Kalshi's climate, weather, and economic indicator markets — categories that lend themselves to hedging strategies more familiar to institutional desks than the sports-related contracts that have driven Kalshi's retail growth to date.

Joe Grubb, Susquehanna's head of business development, said he views institutional risk transfer as the next material growth phase for prediction markets.

Wednesday's announcement is the latest in a series of moves Kalshi has made this year to attract professional capital. The company completed what it described as the first block trade on an event contract exchange back in April, and has since rolled out a range of partnerships and internal initiatives aimed at giving institutional clients confidence in a still-novel asset class.

The backdrop extends beyond Kalshi's own ambitions. President Trump was scheduled Wednesday to meet at the White House with crypto, prediction market, and financial industry leaders, underscoring the degree to which these platforms have moved from the margins toward the center of mainstream financial and political conversations.

The arrangement comes as Kalshi continues to straddle two audiences — retail traders who have flocked to its sports markets, and the institutional investors whose participation the company views as essential to its long-term scale. Whether the entry of firms like Cantor and Susquehanna will draw sustained institutional volume into event contract markets, or remain a niche complement to traditional instruments, will likely become clearer as Kalshi pursues new CFTC-approved market designs in the months ahead.

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