The advice
- Crypto.com offers several key integrations for its predictions market.
- The new venture is “important” to the company’s business, an executive told DL News.
A version of this story appeared in The advice newsletter of November 10. Register here.
Travis McGhee is betting the house that his company’s app will become ubiquitous at your next Oscars party.
At least, that’s the pitch.
After Crypto.com announced a new partnership with the entertainment media Hollywood.com In November, the Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange’s global head of capital markets expects its prediction market product and big-ticket movie hype to be a perfect match.
“Oscar parties are huge, right? McGhee told me. “I’ve been to a few parties where you’re constantly talking about who’s going to win best actor, who’s going to win best actress. You’re constantly trying to make predictions.”
Crypto.com prediction markets will even be directly integrated into Hollywood.com articles so that readers can bet on the new film in which George Clooney stars by reading the latest interview with the 64-year-old actor.
Entertainment is also just niche.
Crypto.com is going all-in on prediction markets.
Sports, culture, politics
Through a series of recent partnerships, including with US President Donald Trump’s social media platform, Crypto.com offers event-based betting on issues related to sports, pop culture, politics and traditional financial markets.
“I’m looking at this expansion into another asset class that complements, in many ways, crypto,” he said, pointing to the platform’s more than 152 million users who trade digital assets. “Providing them with this access to crypto, while simultaneously giving them access to new opportunities, is important to our business.”
For years, prediction markets have allowed users to make money by accurately predicting the outcomes of a number of events, from the U.S. presidential election to the discovery of a missing submarine.
Volumes and open positions on Kalshi and Polymarket, the two market leaders, briefly fell after the elections.
Now, that money is coming back in droves as sports seasons resume this fall.
Weekly notional volume for prediction markets in November reached around $2 billion, according to data from Dune Analytics.
Last week, this figure reached $3 billion and is mainly driven by sporting events.
However, growth is far from certain.
Legal battles
Crypto.com and Kalshi are both mired in legal disputes with state gaming commissions over their sporting event contracts.
Although both companies are registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, local authorities say these products constitute unlicensed sports betting and therefore fall under their jurisdiction.
Nevada’s gambling authorities, in particular, pose a considerable challenge to them.
The Nevada Gaming Control Board issued Crypto.com a cease and desist letter in May, ordering the company to stop its offerings in the state. The crypto company sued NGCB in June, and a federal judge denied its request for a preliminary injunction in October.
Crypto.com stopped offering sporting event contracts in Nevada on November 3 while it filed an appeal.
Gaming authorities in Ohio and Maryland have also issued similar orders.
Shouldn’t costly and time-consuming state-by-state litigation be a major obstacle to Crypto.com’s growth ambitions?
“I don’t,” McGhee said. “I firmly believe that event contracts are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the CFTC. Ultimately, the federal courts will rule in our favor.”
He hopes to have integrations with Hollywood.com, Truth Social and MyPrize prediction marketplaces up and running by January 2026.
Liam Kelly is DL News’ DeFi correspondent based in Berlin. Do you have any advice? Contact us at liam@dlnews.com.
