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Sep 15 Sep 17 Sep 19 Sep 20 Sep 22 $87.0k $83.2k $79.3k $75.5k 24h High High $87,330 24h Low Low $84,830 Vol Vol $2.1B Market projections Odds by Myriad Today Above $86,000 Above $86k 55 % chance This week Above $86,000 Above $86k 51 % chance This month Above $86,000 Above $86k 51 % chance → Buy Bitcoin with USDT Powered by Jupiter $ 50 $ 100 $ 500 Buy Price data by CoinGecko CoinGecko More Bitcoin news and projections → 🎲 Robinhood CEO Bets Crypto Will Beat Sports at Prediction Markets
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev told Jim Cramer on Mad Money that crypto contracts are already taking a disproportionate share of Robinhood’s prediction markets business, and that within a few years “sports will actually be in the minority.” He called sports a wedge for bringing in liquidity and users, and said the industry is expanding far beyond it.
Robinhood’s event-contract revenue jumped more than tenfold year over year to $156 million in the second quarter, making it the company’s fastest-growing business line. Contracts traded 4.7 billion times in August, roughly 15 times the year-earlier volume. Over the same stretch, Robinhood’s crypto trading revenue fell.
The business sits on three legs now. Robinhood launched on top of Kalshi, then added Rothera, its own CFTC-licensed joint venture with Susquehanna. This month it took minority stakes in Crypto.com and its prediction-market spinoff OG.com, adding a third partner to clear and settle trades.
Sports contracts are the legally contested category. The Ninth Circuit ruled last month that Nevada can regulate Kalshi’s sports contracts, splitting with the Third Circuit, and New Jersey has asked the Supreme Court to settle it. States argue sports contracts are gambling by another name. Crypto contracts don’t carry that fight. Shifting the mix toward crypto moves Robinhood’s fastest-growing business onto firmer legal ground.
Tenev also picked a revealing example of the pitch. He said users with a view on the Clarity Act could trade it, because Robinhood has a market on that. The bill failed cloture last week, and the prediction markets called it before the Senate did, with Polymarket odds falling from 35% to 11% ahead of the vote.
The other factor not being talked about here—crypto is exciting again. The bear market was just a grind down and then this summer had no volatility. No volatility means nothing interesting to bet on. That changes in an early bull market. Users can make predictions on BTC price targets by end of year. They can predict how quickly alt coins will hit ATH. They can even hedge the election by making a directional bet on price action. Overall, excitement is back in crypto. And that means more market action, of multiple varieties.