Robinhood Chairman and CEO Vlad Tenev told CNBC's Jim Cramer that crypto event-contracts are already grabbing an outsized share of the platform's prediction markets business, and he expects sports wagers to fall into the minority within just a few years. According to reports from CNBC, Tenev pushed back on the idea that event contracts are just a rebrand of sports betting, stating that 'We're already seeing other categories like crypto taking a disproportionate share. And I think within a few years, sports will actually be in the minority.'
Prediction markets have become one of the fastest-growing corners of US trading over the past year, with CME, Kalshi, Coinbase, and decentralized platforms all competing for a share of the event-contract boom. As reported by CNBC, crypto-linked contracts have grown alongside traditional prediction markets, largely outside the sports-betting battles now working through the courts. This positioning gives Robinhood's newest product line room to expand rapidly while avoiding the legal challenges facing sports contracts. The competition has intensified with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) giving the green light for trading in perpetual futures at the end of May, opening up new opportunities for platforms like Kalshi, which now offers perpetual futures contracts on 17 other cryptocurrencies including Hyperliquid.
The National Futures Association (NFA) has taken a more fundamental position regarding the regulatory framework for prediction markets, arguing that existing Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) framework assigns separate roles to exchanges, clearinghouses and Futures Commission Merchants (FCMs). According to NFA's February 27 comment, the organization stated that 'The CEA presumes that all customer-facing activities will flow through an intermediary,' and retail derivatives clearing organizations (DCOs) should not serve as substitutes for FCMs under the current framework. Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), a major Polymarket investor, argued that fully collateralized products reduce the need for traditional FCM credit-risk functions, though it emphasized that responsibilities like KYC, AML, risk management and conduct oversight still require protection. Fraud and compliance problems are not unique to prediction markets, with fast-growing financial platforms like Cash App struggling to scale their controls alongside customer bases.
Robinhood has called prediction markets its fastest-growing revenue line, with roughly nine billion event contracts traded on the platform over the past year. As reported by Front Office Sports, the company recently formed a joint venture with market maker Susquehanna to acquire crypto exchange MIAXdx, formerly LedgerX, with plans to launch dedicated prediction market infrastructure of its own. Tenev frames this strategy as part of a broader 'ownership' push, justifying Robinhood's expansion into tokenized stocks and retirement-account matching services. The company's positioning in the perpetual futures market, alongside competitors like Coinbase and Kalshi, reflects the growing popularity of these high-leverage trading instruments that allow traders to bet on both upward and downward cryptocurrency movements.
