River Markets affiliate completes CFTC futures commission merchant registration, aims to build prediction market prime brokerage platform

BlockBeats news, November 9 - According to The Block, prediction market brokerage River Markets announced that its affiliate River Finance LLC has registered with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as a Futures Commission Merchant (FCM) and joined the National Futures Association (NFA), enabling it to carry customer accounts and handle customer funds. The company is building a prime brokerage platform for prediction markets, planning to allow institutional traders to manage funds, positions, and risk across multiple trading platforms and clearinghouses through a single account, and intends to support financing arrangements and approved over-the-counter trading.

Oscar Levy, co-founder and CEO of River Markets, said in a statement that merely gaining access to event contracts is not enough—institutions entering this market need to deploy capital efficiently around the clock and manage risk across trading platforms, which is exactly the brokerage model the company is building. Founded in May of this year, the company serves hedge funds, sports funds, proprietary trading firms, and event risk hedging enterprises. River Markets said it has routed over 250 million contracts and secured backing from "top-tier venture capital firms" after completing an $8.5 million seed round. The Block reported that Kalshi, Polymarket's U.S. platform, and Polymarket's international platform combined for over $500 billion in trading volume in October.