Trial balloon

Coinbase’s new ‘everything app’ hints at prediction markets and P2P betting

Jul 21, 2025

Base app launch features peer-to-peer betting in social app functionality.
In +More: “Cost creep” in Las Vegas is putting off the value-conscious.
Markets: Evolution gets a post-earnings bump.
By the numbers: New Jersey and Pennsylvania June data.

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Base case

Disruption is coming: Coinbase’s new blockchain-based ‘everything app,’ launched last Wednesday, would appear to include peer-to-peer betting as a function of a new social app that will also likely bundle in prediction markets offerings.

The Base app will supersede Coinbase’s current crypto trading wallet and will incorporate a social network, app discovery, secure chat and a “world-class” trading function.

Everything, everywhere, all at once: Introducing the Base app during a company presentation in Los Angeles, its creator Jesse Pollak said it would offer the “best of social, discovery, chat, trading and payments.”

John Granata, head of product at Coinbase, added that among the apps available would be prediction markets.

I’ve got this: Coinbase and Circle’s USDC stablecoin-based payments system is central to all transactions on the app, meaning settlement can also be completed in-app with Base Pay.

Behind the curve: On Friday, President Trump signed the GENIUS Act stablecoin bill, signalling official recognition and posing a quandary for global gaming regulators.

It all just works: Also speaking at the presentation event, head of engineering Chintan Turakhia suggested the app’s chat functions would allow a user to make a “friendly little bet” within the base social network via an AI agent, to create a market and settle the payment.

“The ability to use on-chain agents and pay with programmable money leads to infinite consumer experiences,” he said
Granata added that the social app would include the ability to “create markets in chat.”

You to me are everything: With the Base app, Coinbase is arguably heading down a similar path as Robinhood, which, as CEO Vlad Tenev told the Bloomberg Odds Lots podcast at the start of July, is similarly positioning itself as “building the #1 global financial ecosystem.”

CEO Brian Armstrong told his LA audience that Coinbase now has the “lego pieces” to “assemble these into a new app that creates an on-chain economy for a billion people.”
“I think we’re right on the cusp of doing that,” he added.

Building blocks: Notably, during a Coinbase crypto event in June where Armstrong said prediction markets were “really starting to take off and go mainstream,” Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan joined a panel to talk about how the company wouldn’t have existed without blockchain.

Inclusion of the still currently offshore Polymarket among the Base offering could be a route towards the company moving onshore.
Last week, Bloomberg reported that two federal investigations into Polymarket instigated at the tailend of the Biden administration have been halted with no charges brought.

A different kind of hold: Another innovation Polymarket is porting across from the world of DeFi was announced late last week when it said that, with the release of its markets for the winner of the 2028 presidential election, customers with long-term positions would receive 4% “holding rewards.”

The company added that it anticipates rolling out a new “reward and oracle-resolution system” later this year.

On social: Kalshi said it has passed the $2bn mark in sport trading volume.

Further reading: Sporttrade’s David Huffman and Alex Kane on why Robinhood has the highest margins on sports. “To those who aren’t familiar with Robinhood's offering, Robinhood has not offered a singular promotional dollar related to prediction markets.”

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+More

Treasury chest: Staying with crypto, SharpLink Gaming on Thursday filed to issue up to $5bn-worth of stock in order to finance the purchase of more Ether. Earlier last week, SharpLink announced it was now the biggest corporate holder of ETH. There was no word of whether it would continue with the pretense of being a lowly gaming affiliate.

Trouble down under: Novomatic’s bid to attempt to gain full control of Ainsworth Game Technology has run into another hurdle after the second-largest shareholder and scion of founder Len Ainsworth, Kjerulf Ainsworth, accused the company of undervaluing its US property assets by more than 40%. The complaint adds to the rumblings from other shareholders about the bid to buy the 47% of the company Novomatic doesn’t own.

Three’s a crowd: Circa has joined DraftKings and FanDuel in the race to secure one of the two untethered OSB licenses being offered in Missouri. The untethered licenses will allow the successful applicants to avoid the revenue share deals on offer from the state’s B&M gaming and professional sports franchise partnerships.

Back in the game: The Ontario Securities Commission has revoked the management cease-trade order that it had previously granted Rivalry in May, after the company successfully published its FY24 and Q125 earnings statements.

The week ahead

Get set: The Q2 earnings season gets underway proper this week with Churchill Downs, Las Vegas Sands, Kambi and Boyd Gaming all coming to the plate.

Tuesday: Evoke releases a trading update.
Wednesday: Raketech and Kambi are the early morning European time reports, while Las Vegas Sands will conduct its earnings call after hours in New York. Churchill Downs will also release its numbers.
Thursday: Churchill Downs will conduct its call pre-market opening in New York, while Boyd conducts its call after market close.
Friday: Gaming & Leisure Properties will conduct its call after releasing its numbers the evening before.

Puts+takes

Hot under the collar: Adding their two-cents worth on the upcoming earnings season, CBRE suggested there would be “more pronounced seasonality” heading into the summer. Among the issues cited was the “cost creep” in Las Vegas that could deter more value-conscious visitors. The higher-end on the Strip has been more resilient but “value-oriented assets” are facing greater occupancy issues, particularly mid-week.

Earnings extra

Betsson

Slumpsson: Revenues and EBITDA being on the rise in Q2 weren’t enough for investors, who sent the Betsson share price down 16% on Friday, with analysts questioning the limited but lackluster info from the Q3 trading update.

See the Earnings Extra edition from this weekend (PRO subscribers only).

The PointsBet bids

Mixi vs. Betr: Following the debacle of the vote count for Mixi’s original PointsBet board-recommended takeover bid, both Mixi Australia and Betr have now tabled competing off-market offers.

See the Earnings Extra edition from this weekend. (PRO subscribers only)

Markets

Vote of confidence: Betr Entertainment might be up against it with its bid to buy PointsBet, with the rival bid from Mixi likely in front in terms of shareholder votes. However, investors are still happy with Betr and sent the shares up 17% last week.

Also feeling positive vibes are investors in Genius Sports, who sent its shares up 12%.
The company was recently the subject of an initiation note form B Riley.

Evolution investors got some relief this week after the company reported its Q2 earnings on Thursday, with the shares up 10% despite what Regulus Partners said was a “stuck record of anemic growth and a doubling-down on promises of a better future thanks to a stronger product pipeline.”

Hack where we belong: Staying with Scandi iCasino providers, newbie Hacksaw Gaming ended the week above its float price, up 4%, after announcing the debut of its games in Pennsylvania in partnership with FanDuel.

In comparison to Hacksaw, fellow newly IPO’d gaming entity Cirsa has not enjoyed a particularly positive first full week of trading, down 5.5%.
Betsson was the joint worst performer this week alongside gaming affiliate Gentoo Media, both were down 14%.

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By the numbers

New Jersey

🪀 Fanatics once again moved into third spot in New Jersey in June, with 13% share, double last month’s share and confirming its status as the operator with the most volatile GGR figures.

Fanatics lagged behind FanDuel on 39%, down from 45% in May, and DraftKings on just shy of 27%, down nearly 200bps MoM.
Across the market GGR rose 53% YoY to $91.9m on handle that rose 6% to $790m and with implied hold of 11.6%.

iCasino continued its strong run of YoY increases, with GGR coming in at $231m, up 23.5% YoY. FanDuel regained the lead share of 23%, up 100bps sequentially, taking over the #1 slot from DraftKings, which at 22% was down 170bps.

Pennsylvania

In thirds: Similarly to New Jersey, only with less volatility, Fanatics retained its third place spot with GGR of $5.4m, representing a share of 8% of the total GGR of $66.8m for June. This was 56% ahead of the prior-year number on handle that was up 5.5% to $461m.

Net revenue rose 73% to $49.2m after promo spend of $15.6m – up 19% YoY – was taken into account.

River deep: iCasino GGR rose 32% to $213m, with FanDuel maintaining market leadership with 29% share, followed by DraftKings on 21%. BetRivers from Rush Street – the subject of an EKG mailout recently – was third with 16.5%, up 60bps sequentially.

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