Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong trolls the prediction markets

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong trolls the prediction markets

On Thursday, at the end of Coinbase’s third quarter earnings name, CEO Brian Armstrong admitted that he was “a little bit distracted,” because he’d been “tracking the prediction market about what Coinbase will say on their next earnings call.”

“And I just want to add here the words Bitcoin, Ethereum, Blockchain, Staking, and Web3 to make sure we get those in before the end of the call,” Armstrong added.

Why blurt those out without any obvious context? As Armstrong hinted, they have been phrases that customers on “mention markets” on Kalshi and Polymarket had wagered could be spoken on the name. So by talking the phrases, Armstrong was permitting some of those bets to repay.

Bloomberg reviews that while point out markets stay a comparatively area of interest a part of prediction markets, a complete of $84,000 had been wager on whether or not sure phrases could be spoken on the cryptocurrency company’s name. And while Armstrong could have helped some Kalshi and Polymarket customers make a little bit cash, he was also illustrating how simply these markets will be manipulated when executives turn out to be conscious of them.

In fact, Jeff Dorman, CIO at digital property funding agency Arca, wrote on X that “you need your head examined if you think it’s cute or clever or savvy that the CEO of the biggest company in this industry openly manipulated a market.”

“It’s not fun working tirelessly for 8 years trying to educate institutional investors on the value of crypto investing as an investable asset class, and working to help them gain comfort in this industry, while one of the supposed ‘leaders’ openly mocks the industry with crap like this,” Dorman said.

Polymarket, meanwhile, posted that Armstrong’s comments have been “diabolical work.”

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Coinbase is shifting into supporting prediction markets itself by way of its Everything Exchange, which Armstrong touted on the earnings name, and the company has also invested in Kalshi and Polymarket. A Coinbase spokesperson told Bloomberg that the company prohibits staff from collaborating in prediction markets or associated exercise round the company.

After Armstrong’s remarks started drawing consideration, he wrote on X, “lol this was fun – happened spontaneously when someone on our team dropped a link in the chat.”

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