Prediction markets are rapidly gaining traction in financial markets, but the sector’s future may hinge on how regulators ultimately define them. The heads of several of the world’s largest exchanges debated the issue during a panel at FIA Boca, where the fast growth of event-based trading has collided with lingering questions about whether such contracts are financial products or simply gambling.
The paper highlights the need for 24/7 clearing and risk management to accompany 24/7 trading, ensuring sufficient liquidity in the markets, considering operational risk and utilising existing market principles and regulations to provide a roadmap.
Europe’s push to enable settlement of DLT-based transactions in central bank money is moving from experimentation to implementation, with the European Central Bank launching a twin-track programme – Pontes and Appia – to bring tokenised settlement closer to reality. Speakers at FIA’s Brussels Forum earlier this month said the shift marks a significant step beyond recent exploratory trials, signalling growing confidence that distributed ledger technology can address long-standing inefficiencies in Europe’s collateral and settlement landscape.
In his first public remarks since assuming the top position at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Mike Selig announced a reset of the regulatory landscape for prediction markets.
Prediction markets, once a niche academic experiment, are colliding with US gambling laws, state regulators and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as volumes surge and courts weigh who has authority over bets on everything from elections to sports and world events.
Michael Selig is wasting little time putting his stamp on the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission. A month after taking office as chair, Selig announced a “Future-Proof” initiative, directing CFTC staff to conduct a comprehensive review of the agency’s rules and regulations and modernise them to ensure a level playing field for new entrants and incumbents alike.
Non-traditional derivatives, such as perpetual futures and event-based contracts, are moving rapidly into the mainstream, driven by advances in technology, demand for round-the-clock trading and the continued institutionalisation of crypto assets. These themes were in focus during a panel discussion at FIA Asia. Executives from exchanges and futures commission merchants discussed the attractiveness of these products and how prepared the industry is to support them at scale.
At FIA's Asia 2025 conference in Singapore, exchange leaders outlined a regional pivot towards after-hours trading, while also examining whether the rapid growth in retail activity can be maintained.
24/7 futures trading is gaining momentum – but its reach will likely be shaped asset class by asset class, with crypto leading the way and traditional markets moving much more cautiously.
