The BNB Chain-based memecoin launch platform Four.Meme has resumed operations after being hit with a sandwich attack that exploited it for around $120,000.
Four.Meme said in a March 18 X post that its launch function was back after inspecting and addressing a security issue. It had earlier suspended the function to investigate it, saying it was “under attack.”
“The launch function has now been resumed after a thorough security inspection. Our team has addressed the issue and reinforced system security. Compensation for affected users is underway,” the Four.Meme team said.
Web3 security firm ExVul said in a March 18 X post that the exploit appeared to be a market manipulation technique known as a sandwich attack that netted the attacker $120,000.
It said the attacker “pre-calculated the address for creating the liquidity pool’s trading pair” and utilized one of the platform’s functions to purchase tokens, which successfully bypassed Four.Meme’s token transfer restrictions.
“Subsequently, the hacker lay in wait for Four.Meme to add liquidity to the transaction, ultimately siphoning off the funds,” ExVul added.
Blockchain security firm CertiK came to a similar conclusion and said the attacker transferred an imbalanced amount of un-launched tokens to pair addresses before the pair was created, then manipulated the price at launch to sell them afterward for profit.
“In this case of SBL token, for example, the attacker sent a bit of SBL token to the pre-calculated pair address in advance, then profited 21.1 BNB by sandwiching the add liquidity transaction at launch,” CertiK said.
The tactic saw the attacker leave with at least 192 BNB (BNB), worth about $120,000, which they sent to the decentralized crypto exchange FixedFloat, according to CertiK.
Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis says the past year saw $51 billion in illicit transaction volume, partly due to crypto crime entering a professionalized era dominated by AI-driven scams, stablecoin laundering, and efficient cyber syndicates.
Ether (ETH) price fell below $2,200 on March 9 and has struggled to recover since. The altcoin is down 14% in March and the decline has hurt investor sentiment, especially as the broader crypto market only dropped 4% in the same period.
Adding to the bearish sentiment, traders are also worried about further ETH price corrections after a 34% weekly drop in decentralized exchange (DEX) activity on the Ethereum network.
Blockchains ranked by 7-day DEX volumes, USD. Source: DefiLlama
DEX volumes on Ethereum dropped 34% in the last seven days, a trend that also affected its layer-2 solutions like Base, Arbitrum, and Polygon. The market slump hit some Ethereum competitors, too, with Solana’s DEX activity down 29% and SUI’s down 17%. On the other hand, BNB Chain saw a 27% weekly volume increase, while Canto surged an impressive 445%.
Ethereum’s negative volume trends include an 85% drop for Maverick Protocol and a 46% decline for DODO compared to the previous week. More notably, fees on PancakeSwap—the top DEX on BNB Chain—surpassed those on Uniswap. While Ethereum remains the leader in DEX volumes, falling fees are reducing demand for ETH.
Top protocols ranked by 7-day fees, USD. Source: DefiLlama
PancakeSwap, which operates exclusively on BNB Chain, generated $22.3 million in fees over seven days, surpassing Uniswap, which runs on Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Polygon, and Optimism. Other signs of Ethereum’s fee weakness include Lido trailing Solana’s Jupiter and AAVE, the leading Ethereum-based lending protocol, generating less in fees than Meteora, a Solana-based automated market maker and liquidity provider.
Ethereum leads in total value locked, but the gap is narrowing
On the positive side, Ethereum remains the dominant leader in total value locked (TVL) at $47.2 billion, but a 9% weekly decline has significantly narrowed the gap with competitors. Furthermore, its layer-2 ecosystem showed increasing signs of weakness over the seven days leading up to March 18.
Top blockchains ranked by total value locked, USD. Source: DefiLlama
Solana’s TVL dropped 3%, while BNB Chain saw a 6% increase in deposits compared to the prior week. Negative highlights for Ethereum’s TVL include an 11% decline in Stargate Finance over seven days, a 9% drop in deposits on Maker, and a 6% decline on Spark.
Ethereum’s weakening onchain metrics aligned with reduced demand for leveraged longs in ETH futures, as their premium over spot markets fell below the 5% neutral threshold, signaling weaker confidence from traders.
The current 3% annualized ETH futures premium is the lowest in over a year, highlighting weak demand from bullish traders. Meanwhile, spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have recorded $293 million in net outflows since March 5, signaling waning institutional interest.
After Pectra upgrade, ETH needs a competitive edge and sustainable adoption’
Ethereum is also facing growing competition from Solana in the memecoin sector, particularly after the launch of the Official Trump (TRUMP) token. Simultaneously, Tron and Solana have captured a combined $75 billion in stablecoins by leveraging lower transaction fees. Adding to the pressure, Hyperliquid perpetual futures introduced its own blockchain, further challenging Ethereum’s market position.
All of this unfolded amid heated debates among investors and developers over whether Ethereum layer-2 solutions are disproportionately benefiting from extremely low rollup fees. Essentially, the decline in the DEX market share reflects waning institutional interest, particularly as Ethereum’s native staking yield sits at just 2.3% when adjusted for inflation-driven supply growth.
For Ether to regain momentum, it must demonstrate a clear competitive edge. The upcoming ‘Pectra’ upgrade needs to provide a viable path for sustainable user adoption; otherwise, the odds remain stacked against ETH outperforming its rivals.
This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
Institutional investors are increasingly bullish on cryptocurrency, with 83% saying they plan to up crypto allocations in 2025, according to a March 18 report by Coinbase and EY-Parthenon.
Already, nearly three-quarters of firms surveyed said they hold cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), and a “significant majority” said they plan to boost crypto allocations to 5% or more of their portfolios, the report said.
They are motivated by the view that “cryptocurrencies represent the best opportunity to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns over the next three years,” according to the report.
Coinbase, the US’ largest crypto exchange, and EY-Parthenon, a consultancy, based the findings on interviews with more than 350 institutional investors in January.
Among institutional altcoin holdings, XRP (XRP) and Solana (SOL) are the most popular, the survey found.
Coinbase and EY-Parthenon surveyed more than 350 financial institutions on crypto. Source: Coinbase
Meanwhile, stablecoins continue to see institutional uptake, with 84% of respondents either holding stablecoins or exploring doing so, the survey found.
According to the report, institutions are using “stablecoins for a variety of use cases beyond just facilitating crypto transactions, including generating yield (73%), foreign exchange (69%), internal cash management (68%), and external payments (63%).”
The survey found that only 24% of institutional investors currently use DeFi platforms, but that figure is expected to grow to nearly 75% in the next two years.
“Institutions are attracted to DeFi for myriad reasons, citing derivatives, staking, and lending as the use cases they are most interested in, followed closely by access to altcoins, crossborder settlements, and yield farming,” the report said.
On March 2, President Donald Trump mentioned Cardano’s ADA (ADA) token among the cryptocurrencies to be included in the US strategic crypto reserve. Trump’s March 6 executive order clarified that altcoins would be part of the Digital Asset Stockpile (DAS) under the “responsible stewardship” of the Treasury.
ADA’s potential inclusion in a government-managed portfolio sparked industry-wide surprise and, at times, harsh criticism. Although it has loyal investors who have supported it for years, many in the crypto community questioned why the token was included in the digital asset stockpile.
Let’s analyze the blockchain to see if ADA’s fundamentals and utility support its place in the US Digital Asset Stockpile.
The case for ADA in the US Digital Asset Stockpile
Launched in 2017 via an ICO, Cardano is one of the oldest smart contract platforms. It differs from others through its research-driven design approach and its use of a delegated proof-of-stake mechanism combined with an extended UTXO accounting model.
Cardano’s ambition as a smart contract platform is well captured by X ‘Cardano_whale,’ who outlined the blockchain’s “non-negligible fees, voting power, decentralized consensus, all native token trading paired with it.”
The X post emphasizes ADA’s utility (something “most VC coins lack”) along with Cardano’s decentralized governance as key advantages.
Indeed, Cardano’s Project Catalyst is one of the largest decentralized funding initiatives in crypto. Through it, treasury funds from transaction fees and inflation are allocated democratically to community proposals. Also, unlike the Ethereum network, which still relies on offchain governance for major upgrades, Cardano aims to transition entirely to onchain governance.
The Plomin hard fork that took place on Jan. 29 marked the transition to “full decentralized governance,” according to the Cardano Foundation. It grants ADA holders “real voting power—on parameter changes, treasury withdrawals, hard forks, and the blockchain’s future.”
Cardano’s native coin, ADA, is used for network fees, staking, and governance. Its maximum supply is 45 billion, with 31 billion initially distributed—26 billion sold in the public sale and 5 billion allocated to IOHK, Emurgo, and the Cardano Foundation.
The remaining 14 billion ADA were reserved for gradual release through minting. With 0.3% of ADA reserves distributed as rewards every five days, ADA inflation declines as reserves deplete. The current inflation rate is approximately 4%, with a circulating supply of 35.95 billion ADA.
While a capped supply can support a coin’s value and justify its inclusion in the DAS, other ADA metrics, such as fees and staking yields, lag far behind competitors.
Should Cardano’s lagging activity raise concerns?
Despite its years in the smart contract ecosystem, Cardano has struggled to generate enough activity to establish itself among the leaders. As a result, ADA’s limited usage within the crypto ecosystem raises concerns about its long-term value.
According to Messari’s Q4 2024 State of Cardano report, the blockchain processed an average of 71,500 daily transactions, with 42,900 daily active addresses. Quarterly fees totaled $1.8 million, a stark contrast to Ethereum’s $552 million in fees over the same period, according to CoinGecko.
Cardano’s annualized real staking yield, adjusted for inflation, was approximately 0.7% in Q4, compared to Ethereum’s 2.73%.
Other blockchain activity metrics reinforce the concern about adding ADA into a government portfolio:
With 449 developers working on the blockchain, Cardano ranks 12th among blockchains in developer count, according to Electric Capital’s report.
Its stablecoins’ share is just 0.01% of the total $224 billion stablecoin market cap, per DefiLlama.
Cardano’s DeFi ecosystem is underdeveloped, accounting for just 0.3% of the total $169 billion DeFi sector. However, if we include its core staking, which does not require locking and therefore is not counted in the TVL, Cardano’s share will grow to 12%.
Cardano’s DApp activity remains low compared to other smart contract platforms. In Q4, it averaged just 14,300 daily DApp transactions—well outside the top 25 and a fraction of Solana’s 22 million. Even more concerning is its 73% decline from Q4 2023, when Cardano recorded 52,700 daily transactions. Such a sharp drop signals a troubling trend for a blockchain that is still in its growth phase.
Is ADA’s potential enough to justify a US government investment?
The case for ADA in the strategic crypto reserve is far less clear than for Ethereum and Solana, which are leading blockchains in many different categories. Cardano’s low activity, limited adoption, and weak staking incentives raise serious doubts about ADA’s suitability for a government-managed asset pool.
On the other hand, ADA’s capped supply and Cardano’s focus on decentralization give it a unique edge over competitors. They could lead to greater adoption and relevance in the long run.
Furthermore, projects like those by Atrium Lab are exploring Cardano’s native compatibility with Bitcoin through the eUTXO system, which could potentially unlock a new framework for DeFi on Bitcoin and drive activity to Cardano.
Could this possibility be enough to justify ADA’s place in the digital asset stockpile?
As David Nage, the portfolio manager of the venture capital firm Arca, put it,
“Like the rest of crypto, the Cardano ecosystem needs to find and support developers to create products and applications that millions of people enjoy and depend on. Then, they need brilliant storytellers to solidify the narrative behind it to build mass, sustainable audiences. After all that, putting ADA into a US national reserve begins to make more sense, in my opinion. It can be done.”
This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
Solana futures (SOL) on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) went live on March 17, with a trading volume of $12.1 million on day 1, which fell short compared to Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum’s (ETH) CME futures debut.
CME Crypto futures comparison by Vetle Lunde. Source: X.com
Vetle Lunde, Head of Research at K33Research, compared the difference between Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Solana (SOL) CME futures trading performances on their launch day, and it is clear that SOL’s CME futures volume and open interest came in far below its competitors.
However, Lunde pointed out that if normalized volumes to the market cap are evaluated, SOL’s launch “aligns closer to the two.”
Was the SOL CME futures launch a dud?
Throughout the current bull market, spot ETF approvals and CME futures contract launches have consistently boosted investor sentiment and put wind behind the sails of various cryptocurrencies. Comparing the normalized volumes adjusted for the market cap differences of BTC, ETH and SOL on their first CME futures trading day provides a fairer comparative analysis.
Normalized volume measures trading activity relative to a crypto asset’s market cap, offering a transparent evaluation across different cryptocurrencies. This metric is valuable since it allows an understanding of institutional engagement with respect to a crypto asset’s market cap.
As shown above, Bitcoin has the highest normalized volume with 0.0319%, while ETH and SOL fell behind with 0.0173% and 0.0166%, respectively. A greater normalized volume suggests higher investor interest per unit or market cap for Bitcoin.
Additionally, the similarity between ETH’s and SOL’s normalized volumes (roughly 0.017%) indicates that Solana’s trading activity scale is similar to Ether’s despite the trading volume differences of more than $20 million on day 1 between ETH and SOL’s CME futures.
Will SOL CME futures follow ETH or BTC’s performance?
Following the debut of Bitcoin CME futures on Dec. 18, 2017, BTC declined by 26%, dropping from $19,000 to $14,000 by Dec. 31, 2017. The correction continued into 2018, marking the beginning of a collective crypto bear market.
Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana CME launch, price reaction. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Ether price registered a rally of 150% to a new all-time high at $4,384, 93 days after the CME futures launch on Feb. 8, 2021. Following a new all-time high, a sharp correction occurred, but the altcoin rallied again toward the end of 2021 to attain its current all-time high at $4,867 in November 2021.
Considering the price trends of Bitcoin and ETH, SOL’s price may experience a less enthusiastic rally. The absence of upward price movement after its CME futures launch suggests a lack of investor excitement.
However, from a long-term perspective, SOL’s presence in the CME increases the opportunities for Solana’s liquidity and price discovery as it attracts institutional engagement. A wider impact could potentially unfold over time as better market conditions and favorable bullish price and protocol revenue projections draw traders’ interest.
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.
Ethereum’s native token, Ether (ETH), has ventured into oversold territory multiple times against Bitcoin (BTC) in recent months, but the altcoin has yet to show any signs of finding a price bottom. The trading situation is actually quite similar to a previous scenario, and ETH’s market structure suggests that it could repeat itself in Q2 to Q3 of this year.
Ether’s repeat breakdowns point to more downside
The relative strength index (RSI) on ETH’s 3-day timeframe remains below 30, a level that typically signals a potential bounce.
However, historical patterns show that previous dips into oversold conditions have failed to mark a definitive bottom. Each instance has been followed by another leg lower, reflecting persistent bearish momentum.
Since mid-2024, the ETH/BTC pair has undergone repeat breakdowns, with losses of around 13%, 21%, 25%, and 19.5% occurring in rapid succession. Moreover, the 50-day and 200-day EMAs are trending lower, confirming the lack of bullish strength.
X-based market analyst @CarpeNoctom highlighted ETH’s negative price performance, noting that the ETH/BTC pair has failed to confirm a bullish divergence—when the price makes lower lows but the RSI makes higher lows—on its weekly chart.
ETH ETF outflows and onchain data hint at further weakness
The “cursed” ETH/BTC downtrend stands out when compared to the broader crypto market. This includes persistent outflows witnessed across the US-based spot ETH ETFs, as well as negative onchain data.
The net flows into the spot Ether ETFs have dropped 9.8% in March to $2.54 billion. In comparison, the spot Bitcoin ETF net flows are down 2.35% in the same period to $35.74 billion.
Source: Ted Pillows
Meanwhile, Ethereum’s gas fees—measured by daily median gas consumption on mainnet—were sitting around 1.12 GWEI as of March, down by nearly 50 times what they were just a year ago.
Ethereum median gas fees vs. ETH price (in dollar terms). Source: Nansen
“Despite the second rally of ETH price into 2024 year end, activity on mainnet as measured by gas consumption never fully recovered,” data analytics platform Nansen wrote in its latest report, adding:
“This is downstream of a few things but much of the activity has shifted to Solana and L2s over 2024.”
Nansen argued that they remain cautiously bearish on ETH due to its unfavorable risk/reward ratio compared to BTC and lower-valued altcoins with niche market focus.
A lack of demand for ETH relative to Bitcoin is further visible in its future volume data.
Notably, Bitcoin futures volume has rebounded 32% from its Feb. 23 lows, reaching $57 billion on March 18. In comparison, ETH’s trading activity remains mostly flat, according to onchain data platform Glassnode.
Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana futures volume. Source: Glassnode
The ETH/BTC pair could drop another 15%
ETH/BTC pair is forming a bear pennant pattern on the daily chart, characterized by a period of consolidation within converging trendlines forming after a steep decline.
A bear pennant technically resolves when the price drops below the lower trendline and falls by as much as the previous downtrend’s height. Applying the same rule on ETH/BTC brings its downside target for April to 0.01968 BTC, down 15% from the current levels.
ETH/BTC daily price chart. Source: TradingView
Furthermore, the 50-day and 200-day EMAs remain in a sharp downward trajectory, with the ETH/BTC pair trading far below these key levels, signaling a persistent bear market structure.
Despite the looming downside risk, a bullish invalidation could occur if ETH/BTC breaks above the pennant’s upper resistance and flips the 50-day EMA into support.
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.
ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood believes the White House is underestimating the recession risk facing the US economy stemming from US President Donald Trump’s tariff policies — an oversight that will eventually force the president and Federal Reserve to enact pro-growth policies.
Speaking virtually at the Digital Asset Summit in New York on March 18, Wood said US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent isn’t worried about a recession.
However, Wood said, “We are worried about a recession,” adding, “We think the velocity of money is slowing down dramatically.”
Cathie Wood speaks virtually at the Digital Asset Summit. Source: Cointelegraph
A slowdown in the velocity of money means capital is changing hands less frequently, which is typically associated with a recession, as consumers and businesses spend and invest less money.
“I think what’s happening, though, is that if we do have a recession, declining GDP, that this is going to give the president and the Fed many more degrees of freedom to do what they want in terms of tax cuts and monetary policy,” said Wood.
Investors believe the first domino could fall in the coming months when the Fed puts an end to its quantitative tightening program — something bettors on Polymarket believe is 100% certain to happen before May.
Meanwhile, expectations for multiple rate cuts by the Fed in the second half of the year are growing, according to CME Group’s Fed Fund futures prices.
The probability of rates being lower than they are now by the Fed’s June 18 meeting is nearly 65%. Source: CME Group
ARK and Cathie Wood have been active cryptocurrency investors for many years. ARK and 21Shares’ spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) was approved on Jan. 11, 2024, and currently has more than $3.9 billion in net assets, according to Yahoo Finance data.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs have recorded heavy outflows in recent weeks, but the overall trend shows investors are holding their positions. Source: Farside
ARK also offers crypto portfolio solutions to wealth managers through its partnership with Eaglebrook Advisors.
Wood told the New York Digital Asset Summit that “long-term innovation wins as we go through these trials and tribulations,” referring to the recent market correction.
When asked if crypto assets remain an “investable arc” over the long term, Wood said this strategy was the cornerstone of ARK’s investment approach.
“[W]e’ve built out positions in more than just the big three,” she said, referring to Bitcoin, Ether (ETH) and Solana (SOL).
This long-term arc is being supported by favorable regulations, which have improved the investment landscape dramatically.
Pro-crypto policy changes are “giving institutions the green light, and if you look at our studies as long ago as 2016, we wrote a paper called ‘Bitcoin: Ringing the Bell for a New Asset Class,’ and, yet many institutions just dismissed it out of hand,” said Wood.
Now, institutions are looking at ARK’s studies and saying they “have a fiduciary responsibility to expose [their] clients to a new asset class.”
Dogecoin (DOGE) price has crashed by over 70% after hitting $0.48 in December 2024. Interestingly, the memecoin’s richest holders have accumulated during the price declines, indicating their confidence in a potential rebound in the coming weeks.
Dogecoin onchain metrics hint at price rebound
Onchain data from Santiment shows that wallets holding at least 1 million DOGE have increased by 1.24% since early February, despite declining prices. Meanwhile, active addresses have surged to a four-month high, suggesting rising network activity.
Dogecoin addresses holding at least a million DOGE vs. price. Source: Santiment
Typically, when large holders accumulate an asset while prices decline, it signals that they see undervaluation and are positioning for a future rebound.
An increase in active addresses indicates higher engagement on the network—possibly reflecting growing retail interest.
If this surge in user activity stems from real adoption rather than speculative trading or panic selling, it could provide the onchain foundation needed for a price recovery. A similar pattern was observed during the DOGE’s 200%-plus price rally in November.
DOGE is oversold, raising chances of 30% rally
Dogecoin is currently testing a support confluence comprising a multi-year ascending trendline support, a level that has historically triggered strong bullish reversals and the 200-week exponential moving average (200-week EMA) at around $0.13.
DOGE/USD weekly price chart. Source: TradingView
Additionally, the Stochastic RSI, an indicator measuring momentum and overbought/oversold conditions, shows a bullish cross in the oversold region (below the 0.30 reading).
This signal typically indicates that selling pressure is weakening. In DOGE’s case, this crossover at low levels has preceded strong price recoveries, notably a 400% price rally in 2024 and 88% gains in 2023.
The first major resistance level lies near $0.22, aligning with DOGE’s 50-week exponential moving average (50-week EMA; the red wave) and the March-April 2024 resistance area, as shown below.
DOGE/USD weekly price chart. Source: TradingView
However, if DOGE fails to hold the support confluence, the bullish setup could be invalidated, leading to a deeper correction toward $0.12, which served as support in the March-May 2024 period.
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.
Bitcoin (BTC) dominance, a measure of Bitcoin’s overall share of the crypto market, has been steadily rising since 2023 amid a torrent of new cryptocurrency coins and tokens.
The current BTC market dominance is roughly 61.6%, down from the local peak of 64.3% recorded on Feb. 3.
BTC market dominance broke back above 60% on Feb. 2 amid a general market downturn over fears of a prolonged trade war between the United States and its trading partners.
Macroeconomic uncertainty typically takes a toll on risk-on assets, and the recent market downturn hit altcoins harder than BTC due to their lower liquidity and higher-risk profiles.
Bitcoin market dominance has been rising since 2023. Source: TradingView
The current market cycle also features Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which silo liquidity into these financial instruments — preventing capital rotation into altcoins, which crypto traders and investors have become accustomed to.
Previous cycles were characterized by investors rotating profits from less risky assets such as BTC into progressively higher-risk investments, starting with high market cap altcoins and eventually working their way into smaller cap tokens.
The liquidity siloed in traditional investment vehicles coupled with the proliferation of new coins and tokens competing for limited investor attention and capital has led some analysts to suggest that altcoin season is now a thing of the past and will not be a feature of the current or future market cycles.
The total number of cryptocurrency tokens and coins listed on CoinMarketCap on Feb. 8 was below 11 million unique assets, as of March 15 the number of digital assets listed on the website has surged to over 12.7 million.
Tens of millions of unique digital assets are now floating around the markets. Source: Dune
According to market analyst Jesse Myers, when these coins fail, they do not go to $0. Instead, they linger around market capitalizations of $10,000 to $100,000 — permanently trapping capital inside illiquid pools.
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.
Robinhood has launched a betting markets hub as the online brokerage — best known for stock trading — expands its presence in emergent asset classes, including cryptocurrencies and event contracts, according to a March 17 announcement.
Robinhood’s stock, HOOD, rose roughly 8% on the Nasdaq after the announcement, according to data from Google Finance.
The new betting feature will let users “trade contracts for what the upper bound of the target fed funds rate will be in May, as well as the upcoming men’s and women’s College Basketball Tournaments,” it said.
HOOD’s intraday performance on the Nasdaq on March 17. Source: Google Finance
The online brokerage is tapping Kalshi, the US’ first CFTC-regulated prediction platform, to operate the event contract platform, it said.
Kalshi is already registered to list dozens of event contracts, covering outcomes ranging from election results to Rotten Tomatoes movie ratings.
Prediction markets “play an important role at the intersection of news, economics, politics, sports, and culture,” JB Mackenzie, vice president and general manager of futures and international at Robinhood, said in a statement.
Experts say political betting markets often capture public sentiment more accurately than polls. Platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket accurately predicted US President Donald Trump’s November election win even as polls indicated a tossup.
Prediction markets have become increasingly popular in the US since September 2024, when Kalshi prevailed in a lawsuit challenging a CFTC decision to bar it from listing political event contracts.
Robinhood tested the waters of political event contracts in October when it started letting certain users bet on the outcome of the presidential election between former Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump.
In February, Robinhood suspended Super Bowl betting after receiving a request from the CFTC to nix its customers’ access to the event contracts.
Beyond stock trading
Robinhood has been expanding its footprint in emerging asset classes, including cryptocurrencies and derivatives.
