Wealthsimple Inc.

says it has received regulatory approval to offer Canadian investors the opportunity to trade directly on the outcomes of future events.

The Toronto-based company, which announced

a number of measures last year

to compete with Canada’s biggest banks, said in a statement that it received approval from the

Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization

(CIRO) to offer “futures and forecast contracts tied to economic indicators, financial markets and climate trends.”

Known as prediction markets, the trading concept allows users to trade contracts on real-world events, ranging from sports to politics to the economy. While popular in the United States, the concept is still new in Canada.

Wealthsimple has not yet announced any plans for when it plans to launch its platform, but Interactive Brokers Canada Inc., an automated global electronic broker, launched such a platform in Canada in April 2025.

The trading mechanism offers a way to investors to “hedge against the outcome of key market-moving events,” Interactive Brokers said in its press release last year while launching its platform. “For example, if an investor believes inflation will rise above a certain level, they can buy a ‘yes’ contract, or if they think it won’t, they can buy a ‘no’ contract instead.”

Prediction markets have reportedly surged in popularity since the 2024 election in the United States, according to Reuters, when the real-time probabilities turned out to be more accurate than the polling. The sector has attracted billions in funding since then.

The sector, though, has faced issues related to insider trading and market manipulation. For example, one user won US$400,000 just hours after placing a correct bet on when the U.S. would capture former

Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro.

Prediction market platforms in the U.S., such as Kalshi Inc. and QCX LLC (doing business as Polymarket), announced steps this week to tackle these issues.

Kalshi on Monday said it has launched tools that can preemptively block political candidates from betting on their own campaigns. Individuals involved in sports will also be preemptively blocked from trading in events that they are involved in.

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These steps were taken after two bipartisan U.S. senators introduced a bill called the Prediction Markets are Gambling Act for better regulation of the sector.

• Email: nkarim@postmedia.com