Simply put
- GalaxyOne chief Zach Prince said he’s “not particularly excited” about prediction markets when it comes to helping customers build long-term wealth.
- The executive highlighted the retail investment platform’s recent support for Solana’s staking and related lending products in the company’s pipeline.
- Competitors like Coinbase are able to diversify their revenue through staking, while others like Robinhood are embracing prediction markets as a driver of growth.
Enabling customers to bet on news is not a priority for Galaxy’s retail investing platform, according to Zach Prince, head of GalaxyOne. Rather, the service debuted It is being built in a way that will reward investors’ patience, he said in October. decryption.
Mr Prince said that within the context of Galaxy’s broader business, the financial services and investment management firm is already well-positioned as far as prediction markets are concerned, providing internal trading and risk management to institutional clients.
When it comes to consumers with investable assets between $100,000 and $1 million, which GalaxyOne targeted, he said prediction markets are a tool that may not be a good fit for building long-term wealth for many wealthy consumers.
“For the individual consumer, we’re not particularly excited about it compared to other things on the roadmap,” he said. “We couldn’t find a use case for someone building a diversified portfolio that would end up allocating to prediction markets over the long term.”
In a sense, the feeling is echo Rick Wurster, president and CEO of Charles Schwab, signaled this week that he would limit access to prediction markets to bets focused on financial events if the nation’s largest discount brokerage entered the space.
Mr. Prince argued that there are two ways to succeed as a consumer financial services provider. One is whether it caters to investors who want their time in the market to be a driving force, as Vanguard and Betterment do, or it seeks clients who consider themselves active traders.
Retail brokerages like Robinhood are working with Calsi to embrace prediction markets and provide what analysts represent. Tailwind from sports. Still, Prince said GalaxyOne isn’t trying to develop a platform that “you want people to log in to every day.”
GalaxyOne now supports Solana staking Last month, individuals became able to earn rewards by locking up tokens and participating in the process of validating transactions on the network. Prince said GalaxyOne will support it in the not-too-distant future. Ethereum Staking.
The company is waiving fees on Solana staking rewards customers receive until the end of this year. GalaxyOne’s upcoming lending services will allow investors to borrow against their staked Solana and Ethereum while earning rewards.
“We’re really excited about the product,” Prince added.
Staking allows competitors like Coinbase to Diversify your revenue Free yourself from dependence on trading fees, which tend to fluctuate depending on market conditions. The crypto exchange announced in February that it would generate $677 million from staking in 2025, down 4% year-on-year, citing a decline in average crypto prices. shareholder letter.
Currently, GalaxyOne customers tend to prefer the 8% cash return supported by the platform’s “premium yield” products, Prince said, calling the service one of the most differentiated products the company has launched to date.
Galaxy announced this week that its retail investment platform is ready to start accepting U.S. companies and institutions as customers. Prince noted that the move will provide an all-in-one place for these customers to manage their banking, brokerage, and cryptocurrency accounts.
“I think business accounts will get some attention because they’re relatively unique,” Prince said. “For individuals, there are other platforms that have that.”
