A supporter checks the gambling site Karshi just before state Rep. Alex Boaz (D-NY) addresses supporters at a watch party at the Freehand Hotel after conceding the congressional race to Mika Lasher, who will replace U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) in New York City’s 12th District, June 23, 2026, in New York City.
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Prediction market platform Kalshi is collaborating with brokerage and financial infrastructure startup Alpaca to bring event contracts to a global audience.
Individuals and businesses using Alpaca’s brokerage infrastructure will be able to access Kalshi’s event contracts using the same technology utilized by the former platform to trade other assets.
This comes after Alpaca registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission earlier this month to become a U.S.-licensed futures trader, an intermediary that facilitates orders to buy and sell derivative contracts.
Alpaca moved into prediction markets because of user demand for access to event contracts, Chief Brokerage Officer Tony Lee said in an interview with CNBC.
“Our real mission is to open up financial services to as many people around the world as possible, and we have to go where the customer demand is,” Lee said.
Max Crowley, vice president of business development, said the alpaca partnership was appealing to Carsi because of its global potential.
Alpaca partners with over 300 financial institutions and reaches 14 million brokerage accounts worldwide. Crowley said Calsi is aiming to expand internationally, but as brokerages in countries around the world build on Alpaca’s technology, it could be possible to bring prediction markets online in other markets sooner if local regulatory approvals are obtained.
“They’re a trusted brand, they’re technologically advanced, and our customers love working with them,” Crowley said. “It takes a lot of time to build a business on a global scale, and this technology partnership makes it possible.”
This partnership is Kalsi’s latest move towards global expansion. In June, it partnered with Canadian financial firm Wealthsimple to steer the market north of the U.S. border.
Alpaca also has 83,000 monthly users of its application programming interface, which allows individual developers to build their own personal software for trading assets. CNBC reported on how long individual prediction market traders will go to gain an advantage over other traders. Many traders develop personalized automated software.
Yoshi Yokogawa, co-founder and CEO of Alpaca, also acknowledged that it will take time for Karushi’s event contracts to expand internationally. However, he said the potential for a large number of new traders to emerge in the future represents a huge opportunity for prediction markets.
“As we get bigger,” Yokogawa said. “I think it should make a lot of sense as an asset class in general for event contracts.”
Disclosure: CNBC and Kalsi have a commercial relationship that includes customer acquisition and minority ownership.
