Coinbase CEO was having ‘a little fun’ when he trolled prediction markets by rattling off 5 words on an earnings call-awdailynews

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2025-12-04

Coinbase CEO was having ‘a little fun’ when he trolled prediction markets by rattling off 5 words on an earnings call

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said he was just having some fun when he trolled prediction markets during an earnings call.
During the call with analysts, Armstrong concluded by saying a handful of buzzwords that some had wagered he might say.
These so-called “mention markets” are very open to manipulation.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong appears to have no regrets after taking a moment at the end of the company’s earnings call to troll prediction market traders.

“The conference call was me just having a little bit of fun,” Armstrong told New York Times columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin during Wednesday’s “Dealbook Summit.”

At the end of Coinbase’s third-quarter earnings call in late October, Armstrong referenced that he was aware of what prediction markets were betting he would say. At the time, Polymarket was offering trades on the specific words Armstrong might use during the call.

He then rattled off a handful of crypto-related buzzwords.

“I was a little distracted because I was tracking the prediction market about what Coinbase will say on their next earnings call,” Armstrong said on the 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.”

In total, traders placed roughly $84,000 worth of bets on Kalshi and Polymarket on the topic. In size, the mentions market was fairly small, but the Armstrong’s action illustrated the precarious nature of many prediction markets, especially so-called “mention markets.”

Sorkin asked Armstrong, who is worth $11.4 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index, about whether he was worried about potential manipulation of prediction markets.

“Yeah. Well, I didn’t trade on it, of course,” Armstrong responded.

After the earnings call, Armstrong said that someone on his team had dropped a link to the so-called “mention markets” in a chat.

“lol this was fun – happened spontaneously when someone on our team dropped a link in the chat,” Armstrong wrote on X on October 30.

Polymarket seemed to take the episode in stride.

“Coinbase’s CEO brought up the polymarket & just read thru the whole list… diabolical work,” the exchange wrote on X.

Armstrong said the question of whether prediction markets should allow insider trading isn’t as clear-cut as it may seem. The Coinbase CEO said he recently had a conversation with a Trump nominee to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission about that very topic.

“If your goal is to actually, for the 99% of people trying to get signal about what’s going to happen in the world, like is the Suez Canal going to be reopened or whatever? You actually want insider trading,” he said. “You want some admiral sitting on a ship in the Suez Canal, who has really good information to be trading so you get better, higher quality signal out of them, right?

“Now, if you want to preserve the integrity of those markets, maybe you don’t want insider trading, right?” he added.

Coinbase has previously invested in both Polymarket and Kalshi.

“Coinbase has robust policies and internal controls that prohibit employees, including executives, from participating in prediction markets or any related activity involving the company,” a Coinbase spokesperson told Business Insider in a statement. “Coinbase is committed to the highest standards of integrity, transparency, and compliance”

Officials responsible for the Nobel Peace Prize have said they are reviewing a last-minute surge on prediction markets in October for Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado in the hours before she was officially announced as the winner of the prestigious honor. Before the surge in trades, Machado’s odds were much smaller than multiple other presumed hopefuls on both Polymarket and Kalshi.

In a review of prediction markets, KPMG wrote in a report that its “clients have expressed concerns” about how non-public information could be used on such platforms.

“To protect their reputation, comply with regulatory requirements, and uphold the highest standards of ethical conduct, financial service firms should consider proactive measures to identify, mitigate, and prevent such risks,” the consulting firm wrote in a report earlier this year.

In the meantime, Kalshi and Polymarket aren’t shying away from Armstrong. Both platforms continue to offer trades on what he may say during future events.

In fact, roughly $49,000 was wagered on Kalshi on what Armstrong would mention during his live interview with Sorkin.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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