Prediction markets are getting another major bridge into traditional finance. Cantor Fitzgerald has launched institutional prediction market trading, giving hedge funds and other professional investors a new way to execute large event-contract trades on Kalshi. The move brings a familiar Wall Street intermediary into a market that has grown rapidly with retail traders but is still working to attract institutions at the same scale.
Cantor is starting with Kalshi, though the company says additional prediction market venues could eventually follow. Susquehanna Predictions will provide pricing and liquidity, creating an institutional setup that looks considerably different from simply opening an app and buying a few contracts.
Cantor Brings the Block Trade Model to Kalshi
Cantor will act as an introducing broker, arranging and facilitating institutional-sized trades through Kalshi's block-trading framework. Those transactions can be negotiated at a single price away from the exchange's central order book. That matters when a hedge fund or another large investor wants to trade a position that might be difficult to execute efficiently through smaller orders.
The structure brings several familiar pieces of institutional finance into prediction markets:
- Cantor provides the institutional brokerage relationship.
- Kalshi provides the federally regulated exchange.
- Susquehanna Predictions supplies pricing and liquidity.
- Block trading allows larger transactions to happen away from the central order book.
Cantor already uses similar institutional relationships across equities and fixed income. Prediction markets are now becoming another product available through that broader trading operation.
Prediction Markets Have Been Chasing Institutional Money
This move did not come out of nowhere. Kalshi and other prediction market companies have spent much of 2026 building products and infrastructure aimed at professional traders. Reuters reported in May that platforms were increasingly targeting hedge funds and other large financial institutions as a potential source of future growth.
The challenge has been creating an environment where those firms can comfortably transact at scale. Cantor co-CEO Pascal Bandelier said institutional participation has lagged the industry's overall growth because large investors could not execute sizeable transactions on a regulated exchange. Cantor is essentially trying to solve that problem using a model institutions already understand.
Kalshi Keeps Building More Institutional Connections
Kalshi has been especially active in building bridges into traditional financial infrastructure. The exchange recently partnered with Apex Fintech Solutions to make its markets easier for financial platforms to integrate. Trading Technologies has also announced plans to provide professional clients with access to Kalshi.
Cantor adds another important piece because it brings direct institutional brokerage into the equation. Instead of prediction markets existing primarily as standalone consumer platforms, event contracts are gradually becoming accessible through the same companies and technology that professional traders already use elsewhere.
Wall Street Could Change How These Markets Trade
Institutional participation could eventually influence more than overall trading volume. Larger professional firms can bring deeper liquidity and more sophisticated trading strategies, potentially creating a very different market environment around heavily traded contracts.
Institutions are not guaranteed to rush in immediately. Prediction markets remain a relatively new category for many professional investors, while regulatory questions continue around certain types of event contracts. Still, easier access removes one obstacle that previously made participation more complicated.
The Trade Handle Prediction Markets Take
The bigger story here is how quickly prediction markets are becoming connected to traditional financial infrastructure. Cantor Fitzgerald is not a prediction market startup trying to build credibility on Wall Street. It is an established investment bank bringing event contracts into a model its institutional clients already know.
If large investors actually use that access, prediction markets could begin developing a second growth engine alongside retail trading. Politics and sports helped attract mainstream attention, but institutional capital could change how these markets function behind the scenes. Cantor opening the door does not guarantee Wall Street walks through it, but that door is getting much easier to find.