Citadel Securities calls for SEC oversight of equity-linked event contracts
Citadel Securities is pressing the SEC and the CFTC to preserve the SEC's oversight of equity-linked products. The market maker wants securities regulators to keep authority over contracts tied to individual stocks and equity indexes. The move highlights jurisdictional tension between the two agencies as event contracts tied to single stocks and equity indexes proliferate on prediction-market platforms. The intervention comes as event-contract platforms expand into financial and equity-linked markets.
Citadel's stance pits the SEC against the CFTC in a fight over who governs stock-tied prediction markets. That fractures the regulatory clarity Kalshi and Polymarket need to list equity-linked contracts without dual-compliance risk. A CFTC win would lump stock-index bets alongside corn futures under existing event-contract rules.
An SEC win forces platforms to register as securities exchanges or shelf the products entirely. The split also arms state attorneys general with conflicting federal signals to justify local enforcement. Platforms now face divergent paths before either agency has ruled. The winning regulator's market structure will shape which venue launches stock-linked products first and which traders can access them.
Citadel's intervention adds a Wall Street market-maker's voice to the jurisdictional pile-up that already includes Kalshi's Supreme Court petition, New Jersey's cert request, and Underdog's parallel preemption suits across five states.