Crypto.com Taps a Wall Street Veteran to Expand Its Institutional Prediction-Markets Business

Crypto.com has named Iskandar Vanblarcum as managing director of its exchange, putting a longtime traditional-finance executive in charge of its push to build an institutional prediction-markets business.

The company announced the appointment on Tuesday, saying Vanblarcum would expand the exchange’s institutional client base and lead its planned event-contracts and real-world-asset offerings.

Vanblarcum spent more than two decades in investment banking and market infrastructure, including senior roles at London Stock Exchange Group and Barclays Investment Bank, before moving into digital assets in 2021. He most recently worked at the exchange OKX as a vice president of business development until late last year.

His immediate focus, according to the release, is launching an institutional-grade venue for event contracts, with later plans to open regulated access to exchange clients around the world.

Crypto.com initially launched OG, a prediction-markets platform regulated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, in February through its American derivatives affiliate, and has since made event contracts one of its faster-growing lines. The new role centers on extending that business to institutions and international markets rather than retail traders.

“Prediction markets are where derivatives were in the 1980s,” Vanblarcum said in the announcement. “Institutional capital knows they belong in the portfolio and they are looking for a regulated, secure platform to access these contracts.” Kris Marszalek, Crypto.com’s co-founder and chief executive, called him “the perfect choice to lead our growing product offering.”

The hire lands as prediction markets draw heavy institutional money. Kalshi has been in talks to raise capital at a roughly $40 billion valuation, rival Polymarket at a lower figure, and Galaxy Digital recently opened institutional over-the-counter trading in the contracts. Crypto.com noted that its institutional event-contracts venue and the plan to open regulated global access remain in development and subject to jurisdictional requirements, rather than live today.

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