Robinhood Targets Global Prediction Markets Following U.S. Launch Success

Robinhood's betting on prediction markets becoming its next billion-dollar gamble—and they're taking it worldwide.

The Expansion Play

Fresh off its U.S. prediction market debut, the trading app is eyeing international territories. Because when you've mastered separating retail traders from their money at home, why stop there?

Global Domination Strategy

The move signals Robinhood's latest attempt to diversify beyond commission-free stock trading. Prediction markets let users bet on everything from election outcomes to weather patterns—because what could possibly go wrong when you combine financial speculation with political forecasting?

One investment banker quipped, 'They're just following the oldest rule in finance: when you find a sucker, keep squeezing.'

Robinhood's proving that in modern finance, the house always wins—they're just building more houses.

Rise of prediction market

The push into prediction markets comes amid a surge of interest in event-based trading, sparked in part by the rise of crypto-native platform Polymarket. That platform has processed billions of dollars in wagers in 2024, largely tied to the outcome of the U.S. presidential election.

The platform became so popular that Polymarket was recently reported to be weighing a potential deal that valued the company at $9 billion, a sharp climb from its $1 billion valuation just a few months ago.

While Polymarket ROSE to fame, the market was somewhat constricted. Now, with Robinhood's U.S. and potentially global offerings, it might open up the prediction market to a larger group of traders.

CoinDesk has reached out to Robinhood for comments.