Robinhood has launched a betting markets hub as the web brokerage — finest recognized for inventory buying and selling — expands its presence in emergent asset lessons, together with cryptocurrencies and occasion contracts, in keeping with a March 17 announcement. 

Robinhood’s inventory, HOOD, rose roughly 8% on the Nasdaq after the announcement, in keeping with knowledge from Google Finance.

The new betting characteristic will let customers “trade contracts for what the upper bound of the target fed funds rate will be in May, as well as the upcoming men’s and women’s College Basketball Tournaments,” it said. 

The on-line brokerage is tapping Kalshi, the US’ first CFTC-regulated prediction platform, to function the occasion contract platform, it stated. 

Kalshi is already registered to listing dozens of occasion contracts, protecting outcomes starting from election outcomes to Rotten Tomatoes film rankings.

Prediction markets “play an important role at the intersection of news, economics, politics, sports, and culture,” JB Mackenzie, vice chairman and basic supervisor of futures and worldwide at Robinhood, stated in an announcement. 

Experts say political betting markets usually seize public sentiment more accurately than polls. Platforms comparable to Kalshi and Polymarket precisely predicted US President Donald Trump’s November election win whilst polls indicated a tossup.

Related: Robinhood tips Singapore launch, touts memecoin interest: Report

Rising reputation

Prediction markets have develop into more and more fashionable within the US since September 2024, when Kalshi prevailed in a lawsuit difficult a CFTC choice to bar it from itemizing political occasion contracts.

By November, buying and selling volumes throughout fashionable prediction markets neared $4 billion for contracts tied to the US elections.

Robinhood tested the waters of political event contracts in October when it began letting sure customers wager on the end result of the presidential election between former Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump.

In February, Robinhood suspended Super Bowl betting after receiving a request from the CFTC to nix its clients’ entry to the occasion contracts.

Beyond inventory buying and selling

Robinhood has been increasing its footprint in rising asset lessons, together with cryptocurrencies and derivatives. 

On March 13, the company listed memecoins like Pengu (PENGU), Pnut (PNUT) and Popcat (POPCAT) in a bid to broaden its presence in crypto. Back in January, it rolled out futures contracts tied to cryptocurrencies comparable to Bitcoin (BTC).

Robihood’s newest earnings report reveals the agency posted a 700% year-over-year jump in crypto revenues within the fourth quarter of 2024 as Trump’s election win and rising market prices fueled boosted crypto buying and selling.

X Hall of Flame: Memecoins will die and DeFi will rise again — Sasha Ivanov 

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