Home PredictIt wins approval to be full prediction market under CFTC

PredictIt wins approval to be full prediction market under CFTC

PredictIt is set to relaunch in the United States as a fully fledged and approved political prediction platform after Aristotle confirmed that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has approved its applications. 

The company that services PredictIt has received the green light to operate as both a Designated Contract Market (DCM) and a Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO), heralding a new dawn for the platform.

A brand new PredictIt exchange will emerge, with the latest prediction markets offering for United States-based users expected to open for trading next month.

“We thank the CFTC staff and Acting Chair Pham for their diligence in reviewing and approving our applications, stated John Aristotle Phillips, CEO of Aristotle. 

“With more than a decade of experience operating PredictIt, we’re excited to bring that knowledge and community to a fully regulated marketplace.”

As part of the operator’s DCO approval, its trusted clearing framework is expected to open up new opportunities and attractions for traders, as intimated by the CEO. 

“Prediction markets help people understand the future, and this approval allows us to deliver the most robust and transparent version of that vision yet,” he added.

Settlement of PredictIt and CFTC long-time dispute

PredictIt first emerged in 2014 as an online political prediction market, operated by Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. 

As with other prediction markets such as Polymarket, which recently added Donald Trump Jnr. to its advisory board, the premise is that users can trade contracts on political outcomes (elections, legislative votes, or policy decisions), effectively functioning as a betting platform where prices reflect user-driven probabilities. 

A breakthrough was reached in June this year, when PredictIt and the CFTC settled their years-long lawsuit through a joint status update filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. 

That was a clear indication of the direction of travel for prediction market operators, under the present Trump administration, following years of legal wrangles with the CFTC and threats of enforcement actions from the regulator. 

Image credit: PredictIt

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Graeme Hanna
Freelance Journalist

Graeme Hanna is a full-time, freelance writer with significant experience in online news as well as content writing. Since January 2021, he has contributed as a football and news writer for several mainstream UK titles including The Glasgow Times, Rangers Review, Manchester Evening News, MyLondon, Give Me Sport, and the Belfast News Letter. Graeme has worked across several briefs including news and feature writing in addition to other significant work experience in professional services. Now a contributing news writer at ReadWrite.com, he is involved with pitching relevant content for publication as well as writing engaging tech news stories.