River Markets said its affiliate, River Finance LLC, has registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a futures commission merchant and joined the National Futures Association, marking a regulatory step in the firm’s expansion into institutional prediction-market brokerage.
The registration allows River Finance to carry customer accounts and handle client funds while River builds a prime brokerage platform focused on prediction markets. The company said the service is intended for institutional traders that want to manage capital, positions, and risk across multiple venues through a single account.
Registration expands River’s operating scope
By obtaining futures commission merchant status and NFA membership, River Finance gains the ability to perform functions that are central to a brokerage model, including holding customer accounts and processing client funds. River Markets presented the move as part of its broader effort to build infrastructure for institutional participation in prediction markets.
The company said its planned platform is designed to connect activity across exchanges and clearinghouses rather than confining users to a single venue. River also said it plans to support financing arrangements and permitted over-the-counter trading as part of that offering.
Focus on institutional prediction-market trading
River Markets said the prime brokerage it is building is aimed at institutions active in event contracts, including hedge funds, sports funds, proprietary trading firms, and companies that use prediction markets for event-risk hedging.
Cofounder and CEO Oscar Levy said conversations with institutions have shaped the company’s approach. According to Levy, those firms are looking for more than basic access to event contracts and need tools to use capital efficiently and manage risk continuously across exchanges.
Company launched in May
River Markets was founded in May. Since launch, the firm said it has routed more than 250 million contracts, a figure it cited as evidence of early activity in its business.
The company also said it is backed by top-tier venture capital firms after raising $8.5 million in a seed funding round. The announcement did not name the investors in the funding.
Next step is building the prime brokerage platform
With the registration in place, the next confirmed step outlined by River is the continued buildout of its prime brokerage platform for prediction markets. The company’s stated goal is to provide a single-account structure through which institutional clients can oversee capital allocation, market exposure, and risk management across multiple exchanges and clearinghouses.
River has also indicated that the platform is intended to include financing arrangements and permitted over-the-counter trading, suggesting a broader service model beyond simple trade access. No launch timeline for the full platform was provided in the announcement.
Source: www.theblock.co