ION, a provider of trading technology and workflow software for financial institutions, has announced that Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) has chosen its XTP for Event Contracts platform to handle clearing for Kalshi’s prediction market products.
The announcement, dated September 9, 2026, frames the deal as infrastructure support for what ION calls the world’s largest prediction market as event-based trading continues to scale.
XTP for Event Contracts is an extension of ION’s existing XTP system.
It is designed as a fully automated, real-time environment for creating, resolving, and settling contracts tied to real-world outcomes.
For Coinbase, the pitch is operational: the platform is meant to process event contracts in real time with limited disruption to current back-office workflows.
ION says the system can support live contract design, onboard tens of thousands of accounts in a single day, and run fully automated processing around the clock.
The three firms have been working together since December 2025, when Coinbase and ION first teamed up to help Kalshi list event contracts.
ION attributes the relatively fast rollout to XTP’s architecture and to joint work among the three companies on analysis, development, and deployment.
In the early phase of that rollout, the platform handled a surge in activity, including Kalshi’s first million trades over Super Bowl weekend.
ION is also positioning the product for futures commission merchants.
The company says XTP lets FCMs run event contracts in the same environment as exchange-traded derivatives and cleared over-the-counter business.
Native reporting, automated settlement, and connections to multiple venues are intended to keep onboarding quick, reduce operational burden, and make it easier to scale as volumes rise.
ION notes that leading FCMs already use XTP and that the same real-time capabilities are now being applied to prediction markets.
Coinbase’s Toni Gemayel, head of prediction markets, said the partnership supplies the operational backbone needed as the firm’s event-contract business grows.
In his comments, he pointed to XTP’s real-time processing as a way to absorb higher volumes without sacrificing back-office stability or execution standards.
Kalshi’s Max Crowley, vice president of business development, said regulated markets need more than exchange rules and oversight; they also need sound operational risk management and processing, which he said XTP provides for Kalshi and Coinbase’s FCM activity.
Samuel Shorthouse, ION’s head of client engagement for cleared derivatives, described the collaboration as support for broader access to regulated event markets at a moment of rapid change in the sector.
He said putting XTP under these workflows gives clients a trusted, real-time foundation and reflects ION’s aim to help the market grow in a secure and scalable way.
The deal sits in a larger industry shift.
Coinbase has been building an “everything exchange” that includes crypto, equities, derivatives, and prediction markets.
Kalshi supplies CFTC-regulated event contracts that users can trade in small sizes, often starting at one dollar, on topics such as sports, elections, and economic data.
ION’s role is less visible to retail users but critical to clearing and settlement as those products move through Coinbase’s platform.
The partnership is less about a new consumer feature than about the plumbing required when prediction markets leave the niche and start to look like another asset class.
If volumes keep rising, the firms will need systems that can design contracts quickly, onboard accounts at scale, and settle activity every day of the week. XTP is ION’s bid to be that layer for Coinbase and Kalshi.
