Robinhood sees surge in bitcoin, gold prediction markets as traders move beyond sports
Robinhood is seeing a significant shift in its prediction markets as traders move away from sports betting toward financial volatility contracts tied to bitcoin, gold, and crude oil. The platform is also experiencing a trend toward shorter-duration contracts, with some crypto-based products now settling in as little as 15 minutes.
Why it matters
The growth of financial prediction markets signals a broader evolution in retail trading behavior, where event-based contracts are increasingly used as gateways to traditional financial products like equities and options.
Price volatility contracts tied to those assets are among the fastest-growing products in prediction markets, according to JB Mackenzie, VP and GM for futures and prediction markets at Robinhood.
Sports is the largest product the platform offers, said Mackenzie at the NEXTPredict conference in New York on Thursday. However, he said there is a shift in how people use the platform.
"We've now started to see price volatility contracts, such as bitcoin, crude oil, gold, start to dominate the marketplace, and they're the fastest growing products that are out there," Mackenzie said.
Prediction markets allow traders to buy contracts based on whether an event will happen, with prices reflecting the market's implied probability of an outcome. A contract might ask whether bitcoin will trade above a certain price at a set time, giving traders a way to take a position without buying the cryptocurrency itself.
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