Prime brokers push Wall Street access to prediction markets: Report

US-based prime brokers, financial institutions that provide services to hedge funds, are reportedly working to give their clients access to Kalshi’s event bets, with prediction markets booming over the past year. 

According to a report from Bloomberg on Wednesday, executives from both Clear Street and Marex Group Plc confirmed that their firms expect to open up access to Kalshi’s prediction markets in the near future.

Clear Street, which is valued at over $12 billion, is expected to be the first of the two to make the jump, with CEO Ed Tilly stating that the firm expects its first Kalshi trade to clear in late March. Marex, valued at around $2.6 billion, plans to follow suit in the next few months.

Thomas Texier, Marex’s global clearing head, said they are seeing strong demand from large financial institutions that are looking for ways to tap into prediction markets.

“Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen very large hedge funds coming to us and saying, ‘Can you give us access to these markets?’” Texier said, adding that the firm is also interested in using prediction markets to hedge its own positions.

Kalshi CEO sees accelerating institutional adoption

In a post on LinkedIn on Wednesday, Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour said institutional adoption will greatly accelerate in 2026 due to prediction markets’ utility in providing data on future events and investment hedging.

“This is no longer an early-adopter space – it is becoming a core pillar of the financial ecosystem, with billions flowing through weekly,” he said, adding:

“Institutions are increasingly using these markets to generate returns, hedge real-world risk, and understand what’s most likely to happen next. CNBC, CNN, Bloomberg, and Fox now regularly cite Kalshi markets alongside traditional market tickers.”

​Clear Street’s CEO emphasized, however, that the firm is treading with caution amid a regulatory gray area for the prediction market space, alongside a host of lawsuits filed by state regulators across the US.

Related: Kalshi, Polymarket eye $20B valuations in potential fundraising: WSJ

The primary issues currently hanging over the industry are related to sports markets and whether or not they fall under the legal category of sports betting, and the potential for insider trading given the wide-reaching nature of markets offered on prediction market platforms.

Earlier this week, executives from major exchanges such as Nasdaq and CME called for regulatory clarity on prediction markets to support adoption in the US. 

“Markets thrive when we ​have consistent regulation, and it allows investors, first of all, to be protected,” Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman said at the FIA Global Cleared Markets Conference on Tuesday.

“We are ​going to the SEC, because the options markets are governed by the SEC, and we want to make ​sure that within the confines of the rule base that we operate in, we can create a construct that will work for investors,” she added.

​The Commodities Futures Trading Commission is claiming to have primary oversight on the sector, while the Securities and Exchange Commission said it will also have a role to play.

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