In the hyper-capitalist world we live in, it often feels like anything and everything is at risk of being monetized. Take NFTs, for example—essentially code-designated image files that, for reasons often hard to explain, can be worth millions of dollars. Meanwhile, the sharing economy encourages Americans to make money off the things they already own, such as their houses and cars.
Now, users of various prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi seem to be scraping the bottom of the monetization barrel. The newest way to make money online? Predicting the exact words a person will say during a speech or live appearance.
Yes, you read that right. There’s apparently a new niche emerging where people make money by accurately forecasting what someone will say. Bloomberg recently reported on this unusual phenomenon, describing it as “part of a niche category [of prediction markets]” where the outcome isn’t linked to earnings, price movements, or sports games, but rather to the specific words spoken in a public forum.
A recent example involves Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase. During the company’s latest earnings call, Armstrong ended by deliberately including a set of DeFi-related terms. “I was a little distracted because I was tracking the prediction market about what Coinbase will say on their next earnings call,” Armstrong said. “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.”
Bloomberg also noted that across various prediction market platforms, roughly $84,000 was wagered on whether words like “stablecoin,” “margin,” and “institution” would be mentioned during the call.
This quirky development highlights just how far monetization—and our willingness to bet on anything—has come in today’s economy. What will people predict next? Only time will tell.
https://gizmodo.com/mention-markets-2000680376