Now let's get to the big story breakdown. Alpaca has teamed up with Prediction Market. CFTC regulated event contracts are coming to alpacas global brokerage infrastructure. And this is a new asset class for alpaca. While Corsi gains exposure to financial investors from 14 million global users, and last month, alpaca registered as a futures commission merchant with the CFTC and the National Futures Association to advance the launch of prediction markets.
And Global Fintech Fest is kicking off in Mumbai, India. The conference focuses on agent AI as well as asset tokenization, quantum computing and security, as well as cross-border transactions and digital public infrastructure. Alpaca is on the ground from the event, and joining us now is company co-founder and CEO Yoshi Yokokawa.
Yoshi, great to have you joined us this morning. Thank you so much for joining us all the way from India. So first tell us why alpaca is expanding into prediction markets and what this will actually look like.
Yes. You know our job is to really connect all the asset classes into one platform. And then prediction markets and event contract has been one of the most talked about asset classes in the last 12 months. And it just continued to increase. And this is not only from the United States, uh, users and the companies, but this is also from the companies globally.
So the interest from the, uh, you know, the global, uh, encoding or existing partner broker dealers has been extraordinary. So, like, you know, we had been working on this to make sure that we can add this asset class into our product lineups.
And we've been hearing a lot about prediction markets in 2026 given all the market volatility this year. But what makes Kalki the preferred prediction markets platform to partner with?
Kalki has been um you know definitely like, you know leading the market right now. Um and then you know obviously like we will we will not know how the whole market dynamics. Looks like in the next 3 to 510 years. However, as of today, uh, given the relationship we had nurtured over the last few years, actually, like, you know, the, uh, you know, Tariq and I were in the same Y Combinator batch.
So, uh, you know, we've kind of known each other for a while, so that I think helped, uh, in terms of, like, you know, we accelerate this partnership to start flourishing.
Yeah. And just expanding on that, since you mentioned 5 to 10 years from now, tell us how events, contracts fit into your vision to expand access to other asset classes, to more traders and institutions around the world, and how do you view them as an expansion of DeFi growth?
Definitely. Uh, you know, we already as alpaca work with more than 300 financial institutions in 50 different countries. And then, you know, we have more than 10 million individual customers that, you know, we provide custody services for um, and then I think, like with the DeFi, uh, crypto trust fi all converging into really one, uh, framework as a one financial services, I think that we are going to see, uh, more asset classes, new asset classes, uh, emerge from the, uh, you know, the companies that are being worked on right now.
Uh, and I think, you know, our job as an infrastructure is how we make sure that we continue to add very quickly those new asset classes that emerge, uh, that we have never seen before. Uh, into the one platform and one API so that our, you know, the developer partners and then, uh, traders, uh, broker dealer partners are able to, you know, utilize our infrastructure without thinking about, uh, complex mid office, back office and then license requirements as much as possible.
And you'll see while I have you here, I do want to get your perspective when it comes to the regulatory landscape in particular prediction markets. So give us your take on what you think is needed when it comes to this area.
I think, like, you know, the conversations and the discussions I think continue to, you know, happen more and more. Uh, and then, you know, there's no really conclusion. I don't think that happened. And then, uh, from my view, uh, because like, we work with so many businesses and traders both inside and outside of the United States.
Um, I have a little bit more, like, kind of global view. Uh, each of the countries and nations do have a different perspective, uh, towards this prediction markets or even contract, uh, markets. And I think that, like, you know, the discussions will continue to, uh, deepen. But but I think like, it still takes time.
Um, you know, I think we are very, very early innings of this new asset class margin, uh, you know, emerging. And then, you know, there are more players working on this segment. So I think like, we're going to see new discussions coming at different viewpoints that are happening. And then we're going to see a lot of new stuff, uh, you know, that we're going to win this, uh, that may impact to the discussions that's happening right now.
Yeah. And actually moving from equities and crypto to events contracts, options or 24 over seven global markets does indeed bring distinct operational frictions. So tell us how you evaluate which financial instruments to abstract next into your infrastructure.
We always think about definitely like bottoms up approach. Uh, so we already have, uh, you know, hundreds of the financial institution partners on their platform. So, you know, we have a very good relationship with our client and the partner broker dealers. So we definitely like, you know, talk about what are the products, you know, that excites them and what are the products there.
And the customers are wanting them to launch. So these are that definitely like, you know, our first priority like how we can add new asset classes. You know, event contract is one of them. And then we have been announcing some of the uh, capital markets access, uh, even outside of the United States, including European stock markets.
And then we are working on some of the markets in Asia as well. So those are really coming from our existing clients that we have. And that's really the biggest priority, how we decide which asset classes that we want to add on, uh, on our platform.
And finally, before I let you go, you're joining us from halfway across the world in India. You're in attendance at Global Fintech Fest. So give us a sense of the temperature on the ground at the event and what you're looking forward to at the conference.
Definitely, like, you know, the you know, things are really moving fast. Um, you know, the local regulations, uh, towards the foreign investments, uh, and then, you know, the foreign, uh, capital access, uh, both, uh, incoming and outbound, uh, has been evolving a lot. Uh, you know, the the presence of the gift city, uh, has been, uh, enormous for the recent fintech.
Uh, you know, next steps in progress by the older companies. Financial services companies in India. So I think like, you know, last especially, um, you know, the eight months, uh, the, uh, things like, you know, there's a big change in the, uh, certain regulation in India, especially with the gift city.
Uh, we're definitely seeing the acceleration of the new fintechs and services emerging very quickly. So we're very excited to continue to discuss and launch the new product features, since we also launched our, uh, you know, India gift city broker dealer on the ground. Uh, so, you know, we're very excited to continue to put the resources on the ground in India.
Well, Yoshi, thank you so much for joining us this morning and for taking time out of your busy schedule to join us. Appreciate your time as well as all of your insights.
Thank you very much. Thank you.
