Cantor to Offer Block Trading on Prediction Markets

Cantor Fitzgerald & Co, the investment bank arm of the Cantor Fitzgerald group of companies, has announced the launch of institutional trading for prediction markets, providing clients with access to block trading in event contracts on a CFTC-regulated exchange.

Cantor will act as an Introducing Broker, arranging and facilitating the execution of institutional-size block trades in event contracts for institutional clients, enabling them to negotiate block trades in event contracts at a single price through Kalshi’s block trading framework, away from the central order book. Cantor says it is also collaborating with Susquehanna Predictions, a liquidity provider in prediction markets, to pricing and liquidity for its prediction markets coverage.

The firm says it is applying the institutional trading model it has developed across equities and fixed income to a new regulated asset class and will operate the business within its Global Markets division under co-CEOs Pascal Bandelier and Christian Wall. While it will initially facilitate block trades on Kalshi, Cantor says additional venues are expected to follow.

“Cantor has spent more than 80 years building institutional access to new markets, and prediction markets are the next one,” says Bandelier. “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. With the launch of block trading, institutional investors can now access block trading in event contracts through an institutional intermediary they know and trust.”

Max Crowley, VP of business development at Kalshi, adds, “We’re looking for partners who think creatively about where event contracts fit in a client’s portfolio, and who see the new use cases and hedging opportunities that come with it. Cantor is exactly that kind of firm.”

Finally, Joe Grubb, head of business development at Susquehanna Predictions, says, “We believe the next area of material growth for prediction markets will be large institutional risk transfer. We are able to price and execute custom, tailored contracts for institutional counterparties desiring to hedge both general market and bespoke industry risk currently unserved by traditional insurance markets.  Our ability to do so quickly and at scale will provide a valuable solution to this unmet market demand.”