Jeff Dorman, chief investment officer of digital assets firm Arca, criticized Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong after the exchange official appeared to intentionally trigger bets on prediction platforms during the company’s third-quarter earnings call.
Key points to remember:
- Arca’s Jeff Dorman criticized Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong for referencing market prediction bets during the company’s earnings call.
- Armstrong mentioned that crypto buzzwords like “Bitcoin” and “Web3” that users had bet on would appear.
- The incident reignited the debate over market integrity.
Dorman said Armstrong’s comments “mocked the industry” and undermined efforts to build institutional trust in crypto.
Coinbase CEO Drops Bitcoin, Web3 Mentions After Following Predictive Market Bets
At the end of the call on Thursday, Armstrong admitted that he had been “following the market predictions on what Coinbase will say on its next earnings call.”
He then added the words “Bitcoin, Ethereum, Blockchain, Staking and Web3” – the terms that Polymarket and Kalshi users had bet on would be mentioned.
His remark actually allowed some bettors to win.
Bloomberg reported that more than $84,000 was wagered on whether those keywords would be spoken on the call.
The moment quickly spread across social media, sparking debate over whether Armstrong’s actions were merely playful or potentially manipulative.
Dorman was not amused. “You need to do some head-examining if you think it’s cute, smart, or savvy that the CEO of the biggest company in this industry openly manipulated a market,” he wrote on X.
He added that such behavior harms credibility, especially as companies like Arca work to position crypto as a serious institutional asset class.
Polymarket, one of the platforms hosting the betting, reacted jokingly, calling Armstrong’s actions a “devil’s work.”
However, the incident highlighted how loosely regulated “endorsement markets” can be influenced when public figures knowingly reference their results.
Coinbase later clarified that its employees were prohibited from participating in prediction markets involving the company.
Notably, Coinbase has invested in both Polymarket and Kalshi, and Armstrong used the same call to promote the company’s new “Everything Exchange,” which could eventually support prediction markets.
In response to the backlash, Armstrong posted on »
Coinbase rejects senator’s claim that it is linked to Trump’s ‘corruption factory’
Coinbase has denied allegations from Senator Chris Murphy, who accused the exchange of being part of what he called President Donald Trump’s “corruption factory.”
Murphy cited Coinbase’s donations to Trump’s inauguration and a new White House ballroom project, as well as its political spending through Fairshake, a crypto-backed super PAC that supported pro-crypto candidates.
In response, Faryar Shirzad, Coinbase’s chief policy officer, called the claims “ridiculous,” saying the senator had ignored “basic facts.”
Shirzad clarified that Fairshake is a nonpartisan PAC that supports both Republicans and Democrats, including several of Murphy’s colleagues in the Senate.
He added that corporate donations to presidential inaugurations have been a common practice for decades and are fully disclosed under campaign finance law.
Addressing concerns about the ballroom donation, Shirzad said Coinbase’s contribution was part of a broader corporate effort through the Trust for the National Mall, alongside companies including Apple, Google and Ripple.
The White House confirmed that the $300 million cost of the ballroom was privately financed.
The post Arca’s Jeff Dorman Slams Coinbase CEO for Cascading Market Predictions During Earnings Call appeared first on Cryptonews.
