Apex Fintech Solutions has launched an API that allows brokerages and investing platforms to offer Kalshi event contracts without establishing their own futures commission merchant infrastructure or connecting directly to the exchange. tastytrade is the first firm using the service, giving Apex a live example of how prediction markets can be placed inside an existing brokerage account rather than offered through a separate destination.
The significance lies less in the addition of another route into Kalshi than in who now controls the distribution. Prediction exchanges have spent years building contracts, liquidity and regulatory infrastructure, but reaching investors still required users to open and fund dedicated accounts. Apex is giving brokerages the connective layer needed to place those contracts beside stocks, options and futures, potentially exposing prediction markets to customers who already have capital and an established relationship with a financial platform.
The release follows the July launch of prediction markets at tastytrade, where customers can trade short-duration contracts covering inflation, interest rates, commodities, cryptocurrencies and other financial outcomes. That launch established the first working use of the Apex infrastructure. The new API expands the same model to other Apex clients and turns a single brokerage deployment into a product that can be replicated across multiple platforms.
Apex Is Removing the FCM Build From the Brokerage Roadmap
A firm offering exchange-traded event contracts needs more than a trading screen. It requires order routing, customer accounts, segregated funds, position records, statements, settlement processes and connectivity to the regulated derivatives market. Building those functions internally can require a brokerage to establish or acquire FCM capabilities, integrate an exchange and maintain a separate operational structure for a product that may initially represent only a small part of its business.
Apex will handle the customer-facing FCM operations, custody, money movement, statements and account management. Kalshi will provide the regulated exchange, market flow and event contracts. Clients will connect through Apex’s existing AscendOS APIs for order management, market data and position tracking. Apex said this can reduce an integration that would otherwise take months to a project measured in weeks.
The division of responsibilities can be summarized as follows:
| Infrastructure Layer | Provider | Function |
|---|---|---|
| Brokerage interface | Apex client | Customer experience, product selection and front-end supervision |
| FCM and account infrastructure | Apex | Custody, money movement, statements, positions and account management |
| Regulated marketplace | Kalshi | Event contracts, order book and exchange operations |
| Contract settlement | Apex and Kalshi infrastructure | Outcome determination and crediting of payouts to customer accounts |
Apex is not entering the process as an untested technology intermediary. CFTC financial data for April 2026 listed Apex Clearing Corporation as both an FCM and a securities broker-dealer, with adjusted net capital of $474.8 million, a capital requirement of $54.6 million and excess net capital of $420.2 million. That existing regulatory and balance-sheet infrastructure is the part of the product that a typical fintech company would struggle to reproduce solely for event contracts.
The launch also completes the first stage of a plan Apex outlined in February. At the time, the company described Apex Prediction Markets as an exchange-neutral hub that would connect clients to several prediction venues through one infrastructure layer. Kalshi is the first connected exchange, but Apex said it plans to add other venues and capabilities through the same AscendOS connection.
Prediction Markets Are Becoming a Feature, Not a Destination
Event contracts generally pay according to whether a defined outcome occurs. The market price expresses the probability assigned to that outcome by traders, while the potential profit and loss can be established before the trade. The contracts can therefore give investors a direct position on an inflation release, election result, sporting event or weather outcome without using a related stock, currency, commodity or option as a proxy.
Travis McGhee, Global Head of Digital Markets at Apex Fintech Solutions, said: “Investors want to trade on direct events, not proxies. Through our platform, clients can now offer Kalshi’s event contracts with ease – no FCM buildout, no lengthy development cycles, no separate platform to manage. We’ve cleared the path. Now firms can move with more velocity.”
The commercial advantage for brokerages is distribution. A standalone prediction platform must acquire a user, complete onboarding and persuade that person to transfer money into another account. An existing broker can display event contracts to an approved customer who may already trade products built around probability and defined risk. Positions can appear alongside the customer’s other investments, while payouts can be credited to the same account once an outcome is determined.
That distribution race is already spreading across retail and institutional markets. Talos has integrated Kalshi into its institutional trading platform, giving professional firms access through infrastructure used for other markets. Meanwhile, Benzinga has turned changes in prediction-market probabilities into an API-delivered news product for brokers and fintech platforms. Trading access, market data, reporting, execution technology and account infrastructure are being assembled into the same type of supporting industry that exists around securities and futures.
The activity behind those integrations has also increased. Kalshi accounted for approximately 75% of combined Kalshi and Polymarket trading volume in late July, according to The Block data cited by FinanceFeeds. The calculation used incomplete July data and a limited comparison set, but it showed Kalshi’s share rising from below 40% in mid-2025. Wider brokerage distribution could strengthen that position by directing order flow from several investing applications into the same exchange.
Max Crowley, Vice President of Business Development at Kalshi, said: “Apex’s infrastructure opens the door for more firms to offer Kalshi markets to their customers. By removing the technical barriers that have historically limited access, this integration helps bring prediction markets to a broader audience of investors who want to trade on the events shaping the world around them.”
Turnkey Infrastructure Does Not Remove the Regulatory Work
Apex can remove the need for clients to operate their own FCM, but it does not eliminate their supervisory obligations. In its own guidance for firms considering prediction markets, Apex said prospective providers would still need to meet National Futures Association requirements, including introducing broker registration, applicable fees and an employee qualified to supervise futures-related activity.
Brokerages must also decide which contracts fit their customers and risk controls. tastytrade initially concentrated on financial and economic outcomes, which are close to the options and futures products its clients already use. The broader Apex integration can support sports, weather and cultural events as well, but those categories bring greater exposure to the dispute over whether some federally regulated event contracts also constitute gambling under state law.
That conflict was active during the week of the Apex announcement. On 11 August, the CFTC exercised emergency authority after Kalshi notified it of a market emergency arising from a New York lawsuit. The state is seeking a temporary order preventing Kalshi from offering event contracts nationwide and more than $36 billion in damages. The CFTC responded by ordering the exchange to continue operating in accordance with the Commodity Exchange Act’s core principles and argued that state gaming laws cannot divide a national derivatives market.
Kalshi has held designated contract market status since 2020, and the CFTC modified its designation in January 2025 to permit intermediated futures trading. That federal status is the basis for the Apex model, but litigation in New York and other states means a brokerage may still face differences in product availability and legal exposure depending on where its customers live.
Market integrity presents a second challenge. Wider distribution brings more accounts, continuous trading and more opportunities for customers with nonpublic knowledge to trade contracts connected to events they can influence. Kalshi and its affiliated FCM have been adding surveillance systems as volumes grow, including an expanded deployment covering both exchange and brokerage activity. As prediction markets build institutional surveillance and compliance controls, connected brokerages will still need procedures for customer monitoring, suspicious activity and conflicts of interest.
The CFTC added another warning on 12 August when it identified procedural and substantive deficiencies in a growing number of prediction-market incentive-program filings. The advisory concerned exchange submissions rather than Apex’s API, but it shows that regulators are examining the supporting mechanisms used to attract liquidity as closely as the contracts themselves.
Apex has therefore removed one of the largest engineering and operational barriers, but it has not made prediction markets a passive product for brokerages. Firms still need to choose their contract categories, supervise customers, explain the risk of binary settlement and operate through a regulatory dispute that remains unresolved. What has changed is that those decisions no longer need to begin with building a futures clearing operation. With tastytrade already live, the remaining question is how many of Apex’s clients believe event contracts are important enough to place inside their main investing experience.