Kalshi strikes S&P Dow Jones Indices deal for benchmark-linked contracts

Kalshi has reached an agreement with S&P Dow Jones Indices to offer event contracts linked to the company’s financial benchmarks. Announced Oct. 26, the collaboration also creates a path for new indexes built from trading data generated on Kalshi’s prediction market platform.

Under the arrangement, Kalshi becomes a preferred prediction market platform licensed for contracts tied to S&P DJI indexes. S&P DJI, in turn, becomes a preferred provider for constructing indexes using Kalshi’s event-contract data, giving the partnership both a trading and an information component.

The forthcoming benchmark-linked contracts will settle against official index values published by S&P DJI, according to the companies’ announcement. That establishes the reference data used to determine contract outcomes, although the announcement did not provide a detailed product lineup or individual contract terms.

The data initiative would work in the opposite direction, using prices from Kalshi’s markets as inputs for potential indexes. Cointelegraph reported that those measures could track expectations around economic developments, political outcomes and sporting events, rather than the performance of conventional financial assets.

Kalshi co-founder and Chief Executive Tarek Mansour framed the collaboration as part of the company’s ambition to become a major financial exchange. He said bringing established benchmarks to the platform was an important step toward attracting both retail and institutional demand.

The agreement adds to a broader pattern of established financial companies entering prediction markets through investment, technology and data distribution. Cointelegraph also pointed to Nasdaq’s filing in March to offer prediction-market-style contracts tied to the Nasdaq 100, followed by an August agreement to supply Kalshi with market surveillance technology.

Another major transaction came in October 2025, when Intercontinental Exchange, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, announced an agreement to invest up to $2 billion in Polymarket. That arrangement also made ICE a global distributor of Polymarket’s event-driven data, highlighting institutional interest in the information produced by these markets as well as their trading activity.

ICE subsequently announced a further $600 million direct investment in Polymarket in March 2026, following an initial $1 billion investment. It also said it expected to purchase up to $40 million in securities from existing holders, with those transactions completing its obligations under the investment arrangement.

For Kalshi and S&P DJI, implementation remains the next step. Cointelegraph reported that the companies had not disclosed a timeline for either the benchmark-linked contracts or the potential new indexes, leaving the scope and timing of the rollout unresolved.

The announcement also distinguishes licensing from endorsement: S&P DJI said contracts based on its indexes are not sponsored, sold or endorsed by the index provider. The next developments to watch are the publication of specific contract terms and whether the proposed prediction-data indexes move from exploration to launch.