Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase Global Inc., stirred up debate by intentionally mentioning a series of cryptocurrency buzzwords during the company’s third-quarter earnings call, leading to payouts in “mention markets” where users could bet on the terms used.
At the end of Thursday’s call, Armstrong expressed that he was “a little bit distracted” because he was monitoring bets on potential vocabulary used by Coinbase executives. He then stated, “I simply want to add the terms Bitcoin, Ethereum, blockchain, staking, and Web3, ensuring we mention them before the end of the call.”
This action immediately impacted prediction markets on sites like Kalshi and Polymarket, where $84,000 was wagered on the terms expected to be announced during the earnings call, as highlighted by Bloomberg. Armstrong’s statement guaranteed payouts for several contracts, illustrating how these niche markets can be easily influenced.
Many within the cryptocurrency sector viewed the act as reckless. Jeff Dorman, Chief Investment Officer at Arca, remarked on X that Armstrong’s behavior jeopardized the credibility of the entire crypto industry.
“It’s alarming if you believe it’s clever that the head of the largest company in this field openly manipulated a market,” Dorman wrote. “After years of striving to educate institutional investors on the merits of crypto as an asset class, and assisting them in finding comfort within this space, seeing one of the so-called ‘leaders’ ridicule the industry with such antics is frustrating.”
Polymarket’s official account condemned the action as “diabolical,” while Andrew Kim, a partner at Goodwin Procter LLP, remarked that the incident points to a regulatory gray area.
lol this was fun – happened spontaneously when someone on our team dropped a link in the chat https://t.co/tQiV3B9jUj
— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) October 31, 2025
“I hope we see further guidance from the CFTC and perhaps a comprehensive framework that addresses these situations,” Kim added. “A key question that must first be clarified is whether there’s even a regulation to implement here.”
According to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) regulations, recognized exchanges are not allowed to list contracts that are “easily manipulable,” thereby bringing mention markets under scrutiny.
Coinbase has invested in both Kalshi and Polymarket and aims to branch into event-driven contracts via its upcoming “Everything Exchange.” A Coinbase spokesperson communicated to Bloomberg that Armstrong’s remarks were “lighthearted and offhand,” emphasizing that Coinbase staff are barred from engaging in prediction markets related to the company.
Armstrong later tweeted about the incident, stating, “lol this was fun – it was spontaneous when someone on our team shared a link in the chat.”
Mention markets remain a small but controversial segment of the prediction market landscape, representing around 0.4% of activity on Kalshi, according to Dune Analytics data. This incident has rekindled discussions about whether such contracts can reliably reflect collective intelligence or are simply too prone to manipulation.