Robinhood in talks with Crypto.com for prediction market contracts
Robinhood is in talks to add prediction-market contracts from Crypto.com, the Wall Street Journal reported. A deal would let Robinhood customers trade yes-or-no event contracts supplied by the crypto exchange's derivatives business. No agreement has been reached and no terms or timeline were disclosed. The discussions follow Robinhood's existing Kalshi event-contract listings and come as competition intensifies between Robinhood and Kalshi in prediction markets.
A Crypto.com deal would give Robinhood a second prediction-market supplier alongside Kalshi, turning contract sourcing into a permanent auction for shelf space. Robinhood already uses dual sourcing to negotiate harder on revenue share. Kalshi now faces margin pressure from two directions: Robinhood's contract demands and DraftKings building its own full stack through DKeX. Crypto.com's CFTC-regulated affiliate gives Robinhood regulatory cover without fresh compliance infrastructure.
The platform that offers Robinhood the best economics will set the template for how brokerages source prediction markets. Kalshi's first-mover advantage fades if traders never leave Robinhood's app to price-shop. Fanatics' acquisition of its own CFTC exchange and clearinghouse showed the sector accelerating toward vertical integration, shrinking the partner market for standalone exchanges like Crypto.com.
Fanatics' acquisition of its own CFTC exchange and clearinghouse last month showed sports operators fleeing white-label partners for vertical control; Crypto.com now risks becoming the supplier Robinhood replaces rather than its long-term infrastructure partner.