Robinhood has launched a betting markets hub as the net brokerage — greatest recognized for inventory buying and selling — expands its presence in emergent asset courses, together with cryptocurrencies and occasion contracts, in response to a March 17 announcement.
Robinhood’s inventory, HOOD, rose roughly 8% on the Nasdaq after the announcement, in response to knowledge from Google Finance.
The brand new betting characteristic will let customers “commerce contracts for what the higher sure of the goal fed funds price can be in Might, in addition to the upcoming males’s and girls’s School Basketball Tournaments,” it said.
HOOD’s intraday efficiency on the Nasdaq on March 17. Supply: Google Finance
The web 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, overlaying outcomes starting from election outcomes to Rotten Tomatoes film scores.
Prediction markets “play an necessary function on the intersection of stories, economics, politics, sports activities, and tradition,” JB Mackenzie, vice chairman and basic supervisor of futures and worldwide at Robinhood, stated in an announcement.
Specialists say political betting markets typically seize public sentiment more accurately than polls. Platforms equivalent to Kalshi and Polymarket precisely predicted US President Donald Trump’s November election win at the same time as polls indicated a tossup.
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Rising reputation
Prediction markets have turn into more and more in style within the US since September 2024, when Kalshi prevailed in a lawsuit difficult a CFTC determination to bar it from itemizing political occasion contracts.
By November, buying and selling volumes throughout in style 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 guess on the 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.
Past inventory buying and selling
Robinhood has been increasing its footprint in rising asset courses, together with cryptocurrencies and derivatives.
On March 13, the company listed memecoins like Pengu (PENGU), Pnut (PNUT) and Popcat (POPCAT) in a bid to increase its presence in crypto. Again in January, it rolled out futures contracts tied to cryptocurrencies equivalent 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.
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