Coinbase CEO Garners Praise, Pushback for Prediction Market Shoutouts in Earnings Call

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong helped some users of the prediction market get paid during his company Q3 earnings call on Thursday, he hit a handful of words to the delight of users who had bet on him using it.

“I was a little distracted because I was following the market for predictions about what Coinbase was going to say on its next earnings call,” he said. “I just want to add, here the words”Bitcoin,”ethereum,’ ‘blockchain’, ‘staking’, and ‘Web3’ to make sure we get those before the end of the call.

Armstrong followed a mentions market, a type of market that asks users what words will be said during a specific event. Such markets were available on the Kalshi and Polymarket prediction markets, asking users to place their guesses as to what Coinbase would say on its earnings call.

Armstrong’s last-minute inclusions sent odds for words like “Web3” and “Ethereum” almost straight up to 100%, finally paying off predictors who expected a Coinbase representative to pronounce them during the quarter-capping call.

The event was allegedly derived from a member sharing a link to one of the markets in a chat with a Coinbase executive, later published on X. Dubbed as “fun” by Armstrong, the stunt drew mixed reviews from industry observers.

While some call it movement “unbelievable” or referred to the Coinbase co-founder as “Chad,” others pointed to the act as failure of prediction markets– and stated that it was a “blatant example of insider trading”.

“I’m tired of dumping on Clownbase, but you need to examine your head if you think it’s nice or smart or savvy that the CEO of the biggest company in this industry has openly manipulated a market.” posted Arca CIO Jeff Dorman on X.

A Coinbase representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment decrypt, but said Bloomberg that Armstrong’s comments were made in an “unfortunate manner, referring to the online discussion on the earnings call,” adding that the company has an internal policy that restricts its employees from participating in prediction markets.

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin came to Armstrong’s defense in a similar fashion on X, telling followers he thinks Armstrong thought he was having fun, and the ETH icon “wants to be part of a fun-loving society.”

The last mentions of Armstrong did not contribute to any major financial success, since the markets in Polymarket and Kalshi had low liquidity and total volumes of $4,000 and $80,000, respectively.

For example, “Web3” and “staking”, the two words he scrambled in at the last moment, managed under $450 in combined volume in Polymarket.

“Lmfao Brian you are a legend but next time you should balance it out and make the ‘no bros’ a solid,” posted a user Kalshi after the stunt.

Both Polymarket and Kalshi have benefited from the rush of activity and hype surrounding the prediction markets of late. The companies have complete additional increases in the last month, they value their respective businesses in the billions.

Coinbase beat its Q3 earnings estimate on increased revenue. COIN shares are up 6.37% at $349.44 on Friday.