Interactive Brokers Launches Unified Prediction Markets Platform With Kalshi

TLDR

• Interactive Brokers has launched a single platform letting clients trade prediction market contracts across Kalshi, CME Group, and its own ForecastEx.
• Users can bet yes or no on elections, climate events, and economic outcomes — sports and pop culture contracts are excluded for now.
• The platform automatically routes orders to the best available price across exchanges, including fees.
• Kalshi says institutional demand has grown eightfold in six months and recently added block trading for large investors.
• Interactive Brokers reported record Q1 2026 revenue of $1.68 billion and now has 4.859 million client accounts, up 31% year over year.

Interactive Brokers has launched a new unified trading interface that lets clients access prediction markets from three U.S. platforms in one place: Kalshi, CME Group, and its own ForecastEx.

The platform went live for eligible clients this week. Contracts from Kalshi and CME Group are being added on a rolling basis, and availability depends on the client’s country of residence.

Users can place yes-or-no bets on outcomes like election results, climate events, and economic indicators. Interactive Brokers says it does not plan to list contracts tied to sports or pop culture at this time.

The system shows prices across all three exchanges and automatically routes orders to the venue with the best net price after fees. Clients can trade prediction markets alongside stocks, options, futures, forex, crypto, and bonds — all without opening separate accounts.

Founder and chairman Thomas Peterffy said the company has seen interest from institutional investors who want to use prediction markets to hedge against natural disasters, global warming consequences, and commodity price moves. He expects more institutions to enter once there is enough liquidity.

Institutional Interest Grows

Kalshi said earlier this month that institutional demand on its platform has grown eightfold over the past six months. The company also recently launched block trading, which allows large, privately negotiated orders typically used by institutional investors.

Kalshi co-founder and CEO Tarek Mansour pushed back on criticism that institutional players create an uneven playing field. He said the company’s own data shows individual investors without Wall Street backgrounds are the top performers on the platform, not institutions.

Critics have argued that prediction markets function like gambling due to their all-or-nothing structure. Traders pay between one cent and 99 cents per contract, receive one dollar if correct, and lose their full stake if wrong.

Peterffy called the gambling comparison a “silly concern,” saying these contracts address serious questions about the economy and world events.

Interactive Brokers Financial Performance

Interactive Brokers reported record revenue of $1.68 billion in Q1 2026, with earnings per share of $0.60, matching analyst expectations. Client accounts reached 4.859 million at the end of April, up 31% year over year.

Daily average revenue trades in April hit 4.241 million, an 11% increase from the prior year. BMO Capital raised its price target for Interactive Brokers to $93 following the results, keeping an Outperform rating.

The stock has returned around 68% over the past year and recently traded near its 52-week high of $87.37. The company carries a market cap of approximately $144 billion.

Revenue for the company grew 19% over the last twelve months to $6.4 billion.

Interactive Brokers said it plans to expand access to additional exchanges beyond the three currently connected to the platform.

The post Interactive Brokers Launches Unified Prediction Markets Platform With Kalshi appeared first on CoinCentral.