Robinhood sees rapid growth in Bitcoin and commodity prediction markets

Robinhood is capturing growth in non-sports prediction markets, with price volatility contracts for Bitcoin, crude oil and gold emerging as the platform’s fastest-growing products, according to a company executive.

Bitcoin contracts drive expansion

JB Mackenzie, vice president and general manager for futures and prediction markets at Robinhood, said at the NEXTPredict Summit in New York City yesterday that price volatility contracts have started to dominate the marketplace.

“We’ve now started to see price volatility contracts, such as Bitcoin, crude oil, gold, start to dominate the marketplace, and they’re the fastest growing products that are out there,” Mackenzie said.

Timed Bitcoin event contracts are now available in intervals as short as five or 15 minutes. Mackenzie said the intervals have shortened significantly over time: “It started off with a week. It’s moved to a day, and now we’re down to 15 minutes.”

Prediction markets drive cross-platform engagement

Robinhood has stated that prediction markets are its fastest-growing business in company history. Mackenzie said many traders who come to Robinhood for event contracts end up exploring other asset classes including cryptocurrency, equities and options, and some evaluate retirement-planning accounts.

“What you see them do is almost immediately start to build out into equities, crypto, futures, options,” Mackenzie said.

Rothera, a prediction market joint venture between Robinhood and Susquehanna International Group, handles a fair chunk of Robinhood’s sports derivative volume.