Futures & Event Contracts

Futures and event contracts are unlocking new opportunities for retail investors. From agriculture to politics to economic indicators, businesses and individuals are using these tools to navigate uncertainty and generate income. For example:

• A farmer might hedge against a poor crop yield.

• A business might hedge against potential policy shifts tied to the outcome of a presidential election.

• A manufacturer might hedge against rising costs linked to the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

More broadly, the predictive data generated by these markets can be beneficial to policymakers, scientists, and academics as well as to business leaders and ordinary people seeking to make better informed decisions and allocate resources more efficiently. 

The contracts Robinhood offers are listed and traded on federally regulated platforms and are classified as CFTC swaps under federal law. Event contracts are subject to the same regulatory framework that has governed the futures and derivatives markets for decades.

What's needed now is consistency, ensuring that every platform serving retail customers is held to the same standards. Specifically, Robinhood supports:

• Consistent customer protections no matter how the customer chooses to access the market. Customers should receive the same baseline standards and protections during onboarding whether they trade via a broker or directly on an exchange. This includes a consistent process for verifying their identity, collecting their employment information, and confirming their risk tolerance and investment objectives. Additionally, responsible marketing practices should apply to all registered entities that market to retail customers.

• Greater fee transparency. All platforms should be required to publicly disclose their complete fee structures, including any preferential arrangements with intermediaries, so customers and regulators can assess whether access is truly fair and competitive.

• Stronger safeguards against manipulation. Platforms should apply heightened scrutiny to contracts where a single person or small group could realistically influence the outcome - such as contracts tied to what a specific public figure will say or do. Not all prediction markets carry the same manipulation risk, and listing standards should reflect that. Additionally, event contracts work best when those responsible for market integrity can communicate and coordinate effectively. Establishing clear, sanctioned channels for information sharing is a practical step toward keeping these markets fair.

• Coordination between the CFTC and SEC. Clear jurisdictional boundaries between the two agencies are essential as prediction markets grow and product offerings expand. Establishing these boundaries ensures market participants understand the rules of the road and operate within the correct regulatory framework.

Retail investors should retain the ability to make their own investment decisions, a principle that has long underpinned the futures markets. The current self-certification process, which allows market participants to introduce products based on their perceived viability, has effectively supported innovation for decades. Any new regulations for event contracts should:

• Align with the regulatory framework for other CFTC-regulated products, ensuring consistency and fairness.

• Establish uniform customer onboarding and marketing standards, regardless of whether a customer accesses these markets through a broker or directly on exchange.

• Preserve investor choice and self-certification by CFTC-regulated market participants.

• Promote regulatory clarity and certainty through clear, technology-neutral rules.

• Encourage responsible domestic market development to avoid pushing innovation offshore.

Prohibiting entire classes of event contracts unnecessarily stifles innovation and undermines consumer choice.

At Robinhood Derivatives, we are committed to ensuring that the futures and derivatives markets remain innovative, inclusive, and accessible. To this end, we’ve taken significant steps to advocate for balanced regulation:

• Engaging Directly with Regulators: JB Mackenzie, Vice President and General Manager of Futures and International at Robinhood, participated in a CFTC roundtable where he highlighted the importance of a regulatory framework that fosters innovation while supporting diverse market opportunities.

• Convening with Industry Allies: Robinhood is a member of the Coalition for Prediction Markets, a new organization dedicated to promoting federal regulation by the CFTC.  On April 13, 2026, Robinhood convened leaders from the legal and academic space for a policy discussion entitled, “The Growing Role of Prediction Markets within the Financial Ecosystem.”

• Providing Written Feedback: Robinhood submitted a detailed comment letter to the CFTC, outlining the risks posed by the 2024 proposed rule and urging the Commission to reconsider. More recently, Robinhood submitted a comment letter on the CFTC’s Request for Comment regarding Direct Retail Clearing. We've also contributed to policy discussion on the Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Relating to Prediction Markets through a comment letter to the CFTC.

• Advocating for Retail Investors: We continue to champion event contracts as powerful financial tools that allow retail investors to better manage their economic futures.

Our approach reflects Robinhood’s broader mission: to democratize finance for all.