Canadian fintech giant Wealthsimple is making a bold move into the world of event-based trading. This summer, the company is set to launch Wealthsimple Predict, a brand-new standalone app powered by Kalshi. This launch will finally give retail investors in Canada direct access to thousands of prediction market contracts, a move that comes right on the heels of securing regulatory approval earlier this year.
Wealthsimple Predict Brings Event Contracts to Canada
The new Wealthsimple Predict app is designed to offer Canadian users access to roughly 4,000 unique event contracts sourced directly from Kalshi. Investors will be able to trade on outcomes across a variety of mainstream categories, including financial markets, economic indicators, and climate events. This development was made possible after the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) officially authorized the firm in March to offer these specific prediction market contracts. As only the second investment dealer to receive such authorization in Canada, Wealthsimple’s offerings will be strictly regulated as derivatives and are required to maintain settlement periods of at least 30 days.
Interestingly, this Canadian rollout is happening at the exact same time Kalshi is aggressively expanding its own horizons beyond traditional prediction markets. Kalshi recently announced that its highly anticipated perpetual futures products are now officially live for trading. This marks the company’s strategic entry into the competitive cryptocurrency perpetual futures market, a space that is rapidly evolving alongside broader institutional adoption by companies like Coinbase and Kraken.
Global Regulatory Challenges and the CME Lawsuit
While Kalshi is successfully gaining traction up north, its expansion into crypto derivatives is facing fierce resistance from established traditional exchanges. CME Group recently filed a lawsuit against the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) over its decision to approve cryptocurrency perpetual futures contracts for Kalshi and similar platforms. CME’s leadership argues that the regulator has fundamentally misclassified these products under federal law, setting the stage for a major legal showdown over how crypto derivatives should be handled onshore.
Beyond the derivatives dispute, the broader prediction market industry is hitting heavy regulatory roadblocks across the globe. In Europe, Spanish regulators recently ordered internet service providers to block access to both Kalshi and Polymarket while they investigate potential violations of national gambling laws. Meanwhile, Asian authorities are taking similar hardline stances. Indonesia outright banned Polymarket following controversial political wagers, while authorities in Japan and South Korea have issued stark warnings and even launched police investigations into local users for alleged gambling violations. Back in the United States, the conflict between state gambling laws and federally regulated derivatives has prompted at least 11 states to challenge prediction markets, an escalating turf war that industry experts predict could ultimately end up in front of the US Supreme Court.
