Jim Esposito, president of Citadel Securities, has publicly stated that his company is considering entering the prediction markets space as a liquidity provider.
Speaking at the Semaphore World Economic Summit, he described a “sound industrial logic” for institutional investors to take advantage of these markets and said his company’s involvement was “certainly possible.”
For the B2B finance industry, the bigger story is what is currently being built to enable that entry.
Citadel Securities president says the company may enter the prediction market, focusing on use cases other than sports https://t.co/HaK2hGlpY9
— Frank Chaparro (@fintechfrank) April 17, 2026
New infrastructure built for institutions
Over the past few weeks, the prediction markets sector has seen a flurry of moves to replace its retail-oriented plumbing with the kind of infrastructure Wall Street actually needs. Kalsi has received regulatory approval for its affiliates to operate as futures commission merchants (FCMs). This is the first step toward offering credit trading to institutional customers.
This move moves the platform from fully collateralized to a more capital efficient model standard in traditional derivatives markets. Kalsi also partnered with financial infrastructure company FIS to launch FIS CD Prediction Clearing, a post-trade solution that allows institutional brokers to clear prediction market contracts through their existing back-office systems.
Separately, digital asset management company BitGo and quantitative trading company Susquehanna have partnered to create the first OTC desk dedicated to prediction markets, allowing financial institutions to execute large-scale bilateral trades directly from their custodial accounts.
From “if” to “when”
Each of these developments targets specific friction points that are keeping large players out, such as lack of margin, lack of compatible clearing infrastructure, and lack of institutional-level execution channels for block trades.
Esposito drew a careful line between retail sports betting (which he said Citadel has no interest in) and using prediction markets as an institutional hedge around major events such as the upcoming U.S. midterm elections.
This difference is important. It indicates a demand for a more structured and professionally regulated version of the market rather than the current retail offering.
Thomas Texier, head of liquidation at Marex, put the numbers behind this trend in a different context. “In recent weeks, we’ve had some very large hedge funds come to us and say, ‘Can you give us access to these markets?'”
Interest beyond market makers is beginning to surface. Charles Schwab CEO Rick Wurster said the company sees potential in prediction markets, distinguishing between financial event contracts and sports, politics and entertainment-related contracts. He added that this segment is not a priority at the moment.
The question is no longer whether Wall Street will show up. It’s all about how quickly you can complete your infrastructure before the next big event cycle.
