America’s largest discount brokerage is eyeing prediction markets, but Charles Schwab President and CEO Rick Wurster sees a big distinction between speculation on Taylor Swift’s love life and the latest inflation numbers.
“At some point, we will likely have prediction markets,” Wurster said during the company's first-quarter earnings call on Thursday, describing wagers on financial events as distinct from topics like sports, politics, and pop culture.
With $11.8 trillion in total client assets, Charles Schwab’s support of prediction markets would serve as the latest sign that Wall Street giants are embracing technology historically viewed as a fringe playground or regulatory gray area. However, Wurster indicated that Charles Schwab isn’t among firms racing to bring products associated with the sector to market.
“It’s not at the top of our clients’ list,” he said. “And if you look at the stats on the success of gamblers, they're not strong and people generally lose money.”
“That’s something certainly we will take a hard look at and then will be quite straightforward for us to offer,” Wurster said. “When we do, we'll stay away from gambling.”
Asked whether Charles Schwab’s prediction market offering would tap Polymarket or Kalshi, a spokesperson told Decrypt the company—which notched a record 9.9 million trades in the first quarter—doesn’t have anything to share beyond Wurster’s comments at this time.
The discount brokerage said it plans to grow its crypto offering over time by adding a suite of features Robinhood and Coinbase users are already familiar with. That includes the ability to deposit and withdraw digital assets, as well as an expansion of the tokens it supports.
