Kalshi products are heading north, expanding its prediction exchange to Canada through a partnership with an institutional financial firm.
Through a partnership with Toronto-based Wealthsimple, Canadians will gain access to more than 4,000 Kalshi event-based contracts on Wealthsimple Predict, a new product for the market. Wealthsimple Predict will be available only to Canadian users.
The app is in beta testing with a full release expected this summer.
“Prediction markets are the fastest-growing segment of global financial markets, letting traders turn an opinion into a position on the factors that shape our world – where inflation is headed, what happens to rates, or how the year unfolds,” Wealthsimple co-founder and Chief Product Officer Brett Huneycutt said in a release.
“Until now, Canadians have had limited access. Wealthsimple Predict gives Canadians a clean, well-designed way to access these markets, with education and guardrails built in from day one.”
Kalshi expands outside US
The newest move is less about adding another product than about showing that prediction markets are becoming a broader fintech feature. Still, the partnership with Wealthsimple gives Canadian users a way to trade event contracts through a familiar local platform rather than a standalone U.S.-first exchange.
“We don’t know the demand specifically from our customers, but we do believe that there is a global demand for a product like this,” Wealthsimple VP of Investing Products Swapnil Parikh said, per Investment Executive.
Earlier this year, the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization authorized Wealthsimple to offer event and forecast trading. It was the second investment dealer to gain the CIRO’s approval for prediction markets. The CIRO approved prediction markets only for economic indicators, financial markets, and climate.
“Kalshi was founded on a simple belief: views on the future should have markets, and those markets should be available to everyone,” Kalshi Chief of Staff Alex Cuoci said. “That’s why we’re partnering with Wealthsimple, Canada’s leading financial innovator – to give everyday investors in Canada access to fair, secure, and regulated prediction markets.”
Until now, Interactive Brokers has been the only legal prediction market exchange in Canada through a partnership with ForecastEx.
A cleaner international route
The Canadian partnership further demonstrates Kalshi’s expansion of its footprint beyond the U.S. A partnership with Wealthsimple gives it a cleaner consumer route into a major market, and it may help establish prediction markets as a more normal part of retail finance rather than a purely domestic U.S. controversy.
Earlier this year, Kalshi expanded into Brazil through a partnership with XP Inc. As part of a fund raise in October, it announced the plans to expand to 140 countries.
Wealthsimple is presenting the launch as part of a broader push to give Canadian users more ways to speculate on outcomes, while Kalshi gets instant access to a large, retail-friendly audience without having to build the entire Canadian front end from scratch.
If Kalshi’s product can live within a trusted platform and reach users who already know Wealthsimple, Kalshi can further make the case that prediction markets are becoming a mainstream financial tool rather than a novelty.
