BitGo (NYSE: BTGO), the publicly traded crypto custody firm, has partnered with Susquehanna Crypto to offer institutional clients over-the-counter access to prediction market contracts, BitGo announced on March 24. Clients can post cash or crypto as collateral, with assets remaining inside BitGo's separately regulated custody accounts throughout.

The arrangement targets a narrow but growing segment of institutional players: hedge funds, digital asset treasury companies, miners, lenders, and trading firms that want exposure to prediction markets without moving assets off an established custody platform. The OTC structure means trades are negotiated directly between parties rather than executed on a public exchange, which suits institutions that require tighter operational controls.

Susquehanna Crypto is a proprietary digital asset trading firm based in Nassau, Bahamas, with offices in London, Hong Kong, New York, and Bala Cynwyd. It is distinct from Susquehanna International Group (SIG), though closely affiliated with it.

SIG's broader ecosystem has deep roots in prediction markets, having served as day-one liquidity provider for Robinhood's prediction markets exchange after completing a joint venture to acquire 90% of MIAXdx (formerly LedgerX), a CFTC-licensed derivatives exchange, in January 2026.

The timing reflects a broader surge in prediction market activity. Kalshi posted a record $9.8 billion in monthly trading volume in February 2026, while Polymarket recorded $7 billion in the same period, a 7.5x increase year over year. Together, the two platforms account for roughly 97.5% of total prediction market volume and are running at an annualized pace above $200 billion. Bid-ask spreads, once as wide as 10%, have compressed to below 0.5%, a trend that PredictStreet analysts attribute to professional liquidity providers entering the market.

When BitGo launched its broader OTC derivatives platform in January 2026, CEO Mike Belshe described the strategic rationale in a statement: "As institutional participation in digital asset markets continues to mature, clients are increasingly seeking the ability to execute more sophisticated strategies without compromising on custody, risk management, or operational controls."

That platform, which added options and structured products in January, now appears to extend to prediction market contracts through the Susquehanna arrangement.

The deal is part of a wider push by BitGo to move from custodian to full-service prime broker since its IPO in January 2026. The firm priced shares at $18, raised $212.8 million, and debuted with a roughly $2 billion market cap. It held $104 billion in assets under custody as of September 2025, up 96% year over year. Since listing, it has received OCC approval to convert BitGo Bank and Trust into a federally chartered trust bank, obtained a MiCAR licence from BaFin in Europe, added an ETF staking and custody partnership with 21shares, onboarded XDC Network, and been selected by SoFi as infrastructure for its SoFiUSD stablecoin. The prediction market OTC access is the latest product in that sequence.

For institutions outside the United States, the custody-integrated collateral model carries particular significance. Crypto-native institutions in markets with constrained fiat liquidity or foreign exchange restrictions can use existing BTC, ETH, or stablecoin holdings as collateral rather than deploying additional capital. That structural feature lowers the effective cost of entry for firms in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, two regions with rapidly expanding on-chain activity.

Sub-Saharan Africa received more than $205 billion in on-chain value between July 2024 and June 2025, an increase of roughly 52% year over year. South Asia posted an 80% rise in crypto transaction volume over the first half of 2025, reaching approximately $300 billion over that period.

Both regions remain dominated by retail and peer-to-peer activity. Institutional-grade custody infrastructure is limited to a small number of firms, such as VALR and Yellow Card in Africa, and the regulatory frameworks needed to access products like OTC prediction market contracts are still taking shape.

In India specifically, prediction markets are effectively banned under existing gambling laws, which has pushed domestic demand toward offshore platforms. The Gift City financial zone, governed by the International Financial Services Centres Authority, is viewed by analysts as the most plausible regulated entry point for offshore-style institutional products within an Indian framework.

In Africa, regulators in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, and Rwanda are each developing digital asset rules but are not known to have addressed OTC event-contract structures of this type.

The professional turn in prediction markets is accelerating regardless. Firms including SIG and DRW are building dedicated information finance desks that treat event probabilities with the same quantitative rigor applied to high-frequency equity trading.

As that infrastructure matures, OTC access through regulated custodians could become the standard entry point for non-US institutions seeking exposure without direct CFTC registration.

How quickly that pathway reaches emerging markets will depend as much on local regulatory timelines as on the appetite of firms like BitGo to extend their footprint.