Traditional finance giants Charles Schwab and Citadel Securities have revealed possible intentions to enter the crypto prediction market industry.

 

In a call with investors, Rick Wurster, chief executive of Charles Schwab, said that at some point the institution will likely offer its own prediction markets. According to Wurster, prediction markets were not of “tremendous interest” to Schwab, but he said the sector is one the company will take a hard look at and that it would be relatively straightforward to offer such products.

 

Image credit: CNBC

 

However, if Schwab does decide to enter the prediction markets industry, Wurster said it would steer away from bets in areas such as sports, politics and pop culture, adding that the firm aims to position itself as a partner for building long term wealth.

 

“Prediction markets that are not aligned to that are not something that we want to pursue,” Wurster said. “If you look at the stats on the success of gamblers, they are not strong, and people generally lose money.”

 

Citadel Securities also opened up about the possibility of entering prediction markets in the future. At a recent Semafor conference in Washington, DC, Jim Esposito, president of Citadel Securities, said the company is “absolutely keeping an eye on developments” in prediction markets.

 

Image credit: YouTube

 

Although Esposito said Citadel Securities is not there yet because there is not much liquidity in the prediction markets industry, he added that the market is likely to ramp up and scale, and that there is a possibility of the firm getting involved in the future.

 

However, like Wurster’s position on avoiding sports betting contracts, Esposito said Citadel would avoid offering sports event contracts, but signaled interest in other types of event-based contracts.

 

Why Are Sports Event Contracts Being Avoided?

Based on the statistics, sports event contracts are the largest category of contracts on prediction market platforms. According to a recent report, sports event contracts made up 87 percent, or $9.9 billion, of Kalshi’s March $11.39 billion trading volume. On Polymarket, sports event contracts generated over $120 million in 24-hour trading volume in March.

 

However, despite their potential, Charles Schwab and Citadel Securities have said they would not be offering these contracts. For Schwab, these contracts will be avoided as they do not align with the company's goal of positioning itself as a long-term wealth builder. According to Rick Wurster, the chief executive officer of Charles Schwab, people generally lose money from these contracts. The demand for these contracts is also low among Schwab’s clients.

 

Citadel has described these contracts as having thin liquidity. Regulatory uncertainty is also a concern, as the offering of sports event contracts by prediction market platforms is one of the reasons regulators have raised concerns about Polymarket, Kalshi, and other prediction market companies.

 

 

LayerZero is making a very clear statement about where crypto infrastructure is headed.

 

On February 10, the interoperability protocol unveiled Zero, a new Layer 1 blockchain built specifically for global financial markets. The pitch is ambitious. Zero is not positioning itself as another DeFi playground or NFT chain. It is being framed as infrastructure capable of handling institutional trading, settlement, tokenization and eventually AI-driven financial activity at serious scale.

 

The launch is backed by an unusually heavyweight group: Citadel Securities, Intercontinental Exchange, DTCC, Google Cloud, ARK Invest and, in a separate but closely related move, a strategic investment from Tether.

 

Taken together, it feels less like a crypto product launch and more like a coordinated push to bring capital markets on chain.

 

 

What Zero Is Actually Trying to Do

LayerZero’s core business has always been interoperability. It allows different blockchains to communicate and move assets across ecosystems. Zero is the next step. Instead of simply connecting chains, LayerZero now wants to build one optimized for institutional throughput.

 

The headline claim is scale. The company says Zero can theoretically handle millions of transactions per second across multiple execution zones, with transaction costs measured in fractions of a cent. Those numbers put it in the conversation with traditional market infrastructure rather than typical public blockchains.

 

The architectural shift is key. Zero uses a heterogeneous validator design that separates transaction execution from verification. In simple terms, not every node has to reprocess every transaction. Zero relies heavily on zero-knowledge proofs and a proprietary performance system referred to internally as Jolt. The goal is to reduce redundancy while preserving security guarantees.

 

If it works as described, it addresses one of the longest standing criticisms of blockchain systems in institutional finance: replication requirements make them too slow and too expensive for serious trading environments.

 

 

Zones, Specialization and Market Structure

Zero is expected to launch with specialized “zones” tailored to different use cases.

 

One zone will support general EVM compatibility for smart contracts. Another is designed with trading and settlement workloads in mind. There are also plans for privacy-focused rails, which could be important for institutions that need compliance controls and data segmentation.

 

The broader idea is modular financial infrastructure. Instead of forcing all activity into one monolithic execution environment, Zero segments performance based on purpose.

 

That design choice mirrors how traditional exchanges and clearinghouses operate. Different systems handle matching, clearing and reporting. Zero appears to be borrowing from that playbook.

 

 

Citadel, ICE and the Institutional Signal

The involvement of Citadel Securities carries weight.

 

Citadel is one of the largest market makers in the world. Its participation includes a strategic investment in ZRO, the token associated with the Zero ecosystem. More importantly, the firm plans to explore how Zero’s architecture could support trading and post-trade workflows.

 

DTCC’s participation signals interest in settlement and collateral chains. ICE, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, is evaluating how 24/7 tokenized markets might fit into existing exchange infrastructure.

 

These are not crypto native firms experimenting on the margins. They are core components of global market plumbing. Their engagement does not guarantee adoption, but it does suggest serious evaluation.

 

ARK Invest joining the advisory board adds another familiar name from the digital asset side of finance. Google Cloud’s involvement introduces the cloud infrastructure layer that most enterprise systems still depend on.

 

 

Tether Steps In

On the same day Zero was unveiled, Tether Investments announced a strategic investment in LayerZero Labs.

 

This piece is significant for a different reason.

 

Tether has been expanding beyond issuing USDT. It has been investing in infrastructure that strengthens cross-chain liquidity. LayerZero’s omnichain framework already underpins USDt0, an omnichain version of USDT that can move natively across dozens of blockchains without traditional wrapping mechanisms.

 

Since launch, USDt0 has reportedly facilitated more than $70 billion in cross-chain transfers. That figure gives Tether a direct interest in ensuring LayerZero’s technology remains reliable and scalable.

 

The investment is not just financial. It reinforces Tether’s strategy to make USDT the default settlement layer across ecosystems. If liquidity can move frictionlessly across chains, USDT remains central to that movement.

 

There is also a forward looking element. Both companies have referenced “agentic finance,” a concept where autonomous AI agents transact, rebalance portfolios and execute strategies using stablecoins without constant human input. It sounds futuristic, but the underlying requirement is simple: programmable money that can move instantly across networks.

 

LayerZero provides the interoperability rails. Tether provides the liquidity.

 

 

Market Reaction and Token Dynamics

ZRO saw a bump following the announcement, reflecting renewed investor interest. The token has been volatile since launch, like most mid-cap crypto assets, but institutional validation tends to draw short-term momentum.

 

More broadly, the story has reinforced a narrative that infrastructure tokens tied to interoperability and institutional use cases may have stronger staying power than purely speculative assets.

 

That said, performance claims are still unproven at scale. Throughput numbers in the millions sound impressive, but real world stress testing in live markets will matter far more than whitepaper metrics.

 

 

The Bottom Line

Zero arrives at a moment when tokenization is moving from pilot projects to actual deployment conversations. Asset managers are experimenting with tokenized funds. Exchanges are exploring extended trading hours. Settlement windows remain a friction point in global markets.

 

Blockchain infrastructure that can operate continuously, reduce reconciliation layers and support programmable settlement has appeal. The question is whether it can integrate with regulatory frameworks and legacy systems without creating new risks.

 

Cross-chain interoperability introduces additional complexity. Bridges and cross-chain systems have historically been attack vectors. LayerZero argues its design mitigates many of those risks, but scrutiny will be intense.

 

Tether’s involvement also draws attention. While USDT remains dominant in stablecoin markets, it is often at the center of regulatory and transparency debates. Aligning closely with infrastructure providers increases both influence and responsibility.

 

What stands out about the Zero announcement is not just the technology. It is the alignment.

 

Interoperability infrastructure. Stablecoin liquidity. Market makers. Exchanges. Clearinghouses. Cloud providers.

 

This is crypto’s infrastructure stack starting to resemble traditional finance architecture, but rebuilt with on-chain components.

 

Zero has not launched into full production yet. Much of what has been announced is roadmap and partnership exploration. The real test will be deployment, integration and regulatory navigation over the next year.

 

Still, the signal is hard to ignore. Crypto infrastructure is no longer trying to disrupt finance from the outside. It is attempting to rebuild parts of it from within.