"Armstrong, near the end of Coinbase's earnings call, squeezed in a last-second barrage of keywords. "I was a little distracted because I was 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.""
"While that may not have meant a lot to most listeners, Armstrong was actually saying specific words that bettors on prediction markets had wagered he would say. Prediction market bettors on platforms such as Kalshi had made bets that Armstrong or other Coinbase executives would say certain keywords during the call, and up until that point, they had not. So by saying those words at the end of the call, Armstrong handed some bettors a win. That also meant that he handed others a loss."
Coinbase Global reported third-quarter 2025 earnings in a routine call. CEO Brian Armstrong inserted a set of crypto-related keywords at the call's end, noting he had been tracking a prediction market and wanted those words included. Bettors on platforms such as Kalshi had wagered that executives would say particular keywords, and those wagers had not resolved until Armstrong spoke. Armstrong's remarks produced winning and losing bettors. Legal expansion of online betting allows wagers on diverse outcomes beyond sports. The incident appears to be an early example of a public-company CEO directly influencing a wager's outcome. Fast Company requested comment from Coinbase and received no response; Armstrong posted a brief reply on X.
Read at Fast Company
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