Coinbase has announced it is expanding beyond trading crypto and will enter the prediction markets space.
Speaking after the Nasdaq-listed exchange platform’s Q4 results in February, co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong said prediction markets were “very exciting” but that no event contract launches were forthcoming.
Fast forward to Thursday July 31 and Coinbase has now said it will offer prediction markets in the near future as part of its strategy to become “an exchange for everything”.
Max Branzburg, Coinbase VP of product, told CNBC: “Everything you want to trade […] we’re bringing all assets on-chain – stocks, prediction markets, and more.
“We’re building the foundations for a faster, more accessible, more global economy.”
Last month, Coinbase unveiled its “Base App”, a stablecoin-powered “everything app” that attempts to replicate the so-called super apps in China, such as WeChat and Alipay.
Coinbase’s announcement arrived on the same day online retail brokerage Robinhood released its Q2 results and elaborated further on prediction markets.
Results showed total net revenue jumped 45% year over year (YoY) to $989m and net deposits sat at $13.8bn.
Transaction-based revenue spiked 65% YoY to $539m, driven by options revenue of $265m and cryptocurrencies revenue jumping 98% to $160m. Average revenue per user increased 34% YoY to $151m.
For the six months ending June 30, 2025, total net revenue stood at $1.9bn, with transaction-based revenue increasing from $656m in 2024 to $1.1bn a year later.
On the post-Q2 earnings call, CFO Jason Warnick responded to a question asking about Robinhood’s success with prediction markets and what kind of mix the platform was noticing between sports and other types of contracts.
Warnick replied: “Prediction markets is cumulative now at about two billion contracts. We were nearly one billion in the quarter.
“In terms of the mix, since we launched, customers have engaged in over 100 million economic contracts, so really nice.
“A large percentage of the transactions in prediction markets are with sports, and we love to see our customers engage in that way as well.”
Warning added that prediction markets is a product that is “resonating” with customers and that Robinhood will add a “selection across all elements of culture”, as well as topics that could be “on the front page to the business section to the sports page.”
Robinhood CEO and co-founder Vladimir Tenev added that the focus on sport is due to competitors not “present” in that market.
He said: “We see that as a big opportunity, and we’ve been investing [in it]. But we’ve also been building the capability to list lots of different types of contracts, and we anticipate broadening the suite to multiple categories.”
Tenev also discussed prediction markets when talking to CNBC, after being asked if it is something other retail brokerages and crypto exchanges are going to have as part of their portfolio.
Tenev noted: “That’s been a very fast-growing business for us. We’re up ahead very much in the frontier of prediction markets.
“It’s been growing faster than we anticipated. We talk about nine businesses that we have that are over $100m in annual revenue and then we have some that are getting there.
“Prediction markets is definitely one of those.”
When pressed on how long that would take, Tenev said he didn’t want to estimate but it is “accelerating” and that Robinhood processed over one billion contracts in Q2.
The event contacts space continues to heat up, with blockchain-powered Polymarket plotting a return to the US with the $112m acquisition of Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)-licensed derivatives exchange and clearing house QCEX.
Polymarket is looking to go up against US market leader Kalshi, which is regulated by the CFTC and hit a $2bn valuation in June with a $185m Series C funding round, while regulated sports betting operators are eyeing up the opportunity.
For instance, there were rumours in July that DraftKings is in talks to acquire CFTC-licensed but yet to launch Railbird Exchange. Meanwhile, Jason Trost, CEO of betting exchange Smarkets, has said it was a “no brainer” for his company to apply for a Designated Contracts Market licence from the CFTC.
Elsewhere, BetMGM CEO Adam Greenblatt told analysts and investors on last month’s Q2 earnings call the operator wouldn’t be a first mover in the prediction markets race.
The post Coinbase announces plan to expand into prediction markets first appeared on EGR Intel.
Cryptocurrency exchange says it will become an “exchange for everything,” while brokerage Robinhood says it was close to trading one billion event contracts in Q2
The post Coinbase announces plan to expand into prediction markets first appeared on EGR Intel.