Cboe launches S&P 500 prediction market suite for Schwab and Interactive Brokers
Cboe launched binary option contracts on the S&P 500 and Mini-S&P 500 Index on June 24, 2026, with trading live on Interactive Brokers and a Charles Schwab rollout expected in coming months. The product gives retail traders yes-or-no payouts on index direction through Cboe's existing regulated exchange infrastructure rather than a standalone event-contract platform. Schwab CEO Rick Wurster had previously warned about gambling risks associated with event contracts tied to sports or entertainment, but the brokerage is proceeding with the S&P 500 offering. Schwab founder Charles Schwab had invested in prediction market platform Kalshi in 2021. The move adds one of the largest US retail brokerages to the growing field of platforms offering prediction-market-style products.
Schwab's 39 million accounts give Kalshi and Polymarket their first rival with existing retail scale and brokerage trust. Cboe's regulated options plumbing lets Schwab skip the CFTC registration slog that slowed earlier entrants.
Joins Robinhood's recent Rothera exchange debut and Interactive Brokers as major retail brokerages building in-house prediction-market products, turning a startup-dominated sector into a battle among established equities giants.