Author: dmitriy.vasyura@gmail.com

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin is voicing concern concerning the present route of prediction markets, arguing that the sector is drifting away from helpful financial instruments and towards short-term betting.

Key Takeaways:

• Vitalik Buterin warns prediction markets are drifting towards short-term hypothesis and betting.
• He proposes utilizing onchain markets and AI to hedge on a regular basis bills and inflation danger.
• Supporters say platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi can even function decentralized market intelligence.

In a current submit on X, Buterin mentioned many platforms are “over-converging” into merchandise centered on fast value wagers and speculative buying and selling fairly than sensible functions.

He warned that the development dangers turning prediction markets into little greater than playing venues as a substitute of programs that assist real-world financial planning.

Buterin Says Prediction Markets Ought to Shift From Betting To Hedging

Quite than specializing in occasion betting or short-term monetary outcomes, Buterin prompt prediction markets ought to evolve into hedging mechanisms designed to guard shoppers and companies from value volatility.

He outlined a mannequin during which onchain prediction markets work alongside massive language fashions (LLMs).

The system would observe value indices throughout classes of products and providers, resembling meals, housing or transportation, separated by area.

A person’s private AI assistant would analyze spending patterns and assemble a tailor-made portfolio of prediction-market positions representing anticipated future bills.

The thought is to assist households and corporations offset rising prices. People may maintain conventional investments for progress whereas sustaining a basket of prediction-market shares tied to residing bills, making a buffer towards inflation in fiat currencies.

Supporters of prediction markets say the know-how already has broader worth past hypothesis.

These platforms crowdsource expectations about occasions, monetary developments and financial circumstances, producing indicators some researchers argue can rival polling information.

Just lately I’ve been beginning to fear concerning the state of prediction markets, of their present kind. They’ve achieved a sure degree of success: market quantity is excessive sufficient to make significant bets and have a full-time job as a dealer, they usually typically show helpful as a…

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) February 14, 2026

Markets resembling Polymarket and Kalshi have gained traction by providing different views on political and financial developments.

Advocates say they supply a decentralized supply of intelligence that’s tougher to form by centralized narratives.

State Opposition to Prediction Markets Builds Over Client Issues

State opposition to prediction markets has been constructing for months.

In 2025, the SWC urged the CFTC to ban sports activities occasion contracts, arguing that such merchandise bypass state safeguards resembling age verification, accountable gaming guidelines and anti-money laundering necessities.

As reported, a brand new laws to restrict the interactions between authorities officers and the prediction markets is being supported by greater than 30 Democrats within the US Home of Representatives, together with former Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The lure behind new restrictions is a controversial Polymarket wager, which began as a wager of $32,000 however finally grew to become greater than $400,000 shortly earlier than the surprising detention of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

The invoice proposed by the New York Consultant Ritchie Torres is the Public Integrity in Monetary Prediction Markets Act of 2026.

Final month, Kalshi opened a brand new workplace in Washington, D.C., because it ramps up efforts to form federal and state coverage amid rising scrutiny of its merchandise throughout america.

The corporate additionally employed veteran political strategist John Bivona as its first head of federal authorities relations.

The submit Vitalik Buterin Warns Prediction Markets Are Turning into Overly Speculative appeared first on Cryptonews.

Elon Musk’s social media platform X is getting ready to roll out a characteristic that would remodel the app from a dialogue discussion board right into a buying and selling venue.

Key Takeaways:

• X plans to launch Good Cashtags permitting customers to commerce shares and cryptocurrencies immediately in posts.
• The characteristic advances Musk’s imaginative and prescient of turning X into an all-in-one monetary and social platform.
• It would roll out alongside X Cash, a peer-to-peer funds system presently in beta testing.

Nikita Bier, X’s head of product, stated the corporate plans to introduce “Good Cashtags,” a software that may permit customers to purchase and promote shares and cryptocurrencies immediately from their timelines.

The characteristic is predicted to reach inside weeks, in response to a put up revealed Saturday.

X To Roll Out Good Cashtags Enabling Inventory And Crypto Trades From Posts

“We’re launching plenty of options in a few weeks, together with Good Cashtags that may allow you to commerce shares and crypto immediately from the timeline,” Bier wrote.

Bier had beforehand hinted on the characteristic in January, sharing a picture exhibiting buying and selling performance embedded in posts, however the firm had not confirmed the small print on the time.

X beforehand experimented with monetary options. In 2022, it added a fundamental Cashtag system that displayed value charts and market knowledge for main property equivalent to Bitcoin and Ether.

Customers may view market actions inside posts, although the characteristic solely tracked costs and didn’t allow transactions. The sooner system was later discontinued.

The deliberate buying and selling functionality would mark a significant shift for the platform, which already hosts a big share of on-line crypto dialog. Permitting direct transactions would transfer X past data sharing and into monetary companies.

I genuinely need crypto to proliferate on X, however purposes that create incentives to spam, raid, and harass random customers is just not the best way.
It meaningfully degrades the expertise for hundreds of thousands of individuals — solely to complement just a few individuals.
And sure, we’re launching plenty of…

— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) February 14, 2026

The event aligns with Musk’s long-standing plan to show X into an “every part app,” akin to China’s WeChat, the place messaging, funds and companies function in a single place.

The buying and selling characteristic comes alongside X Cash, a peer-to-peer funds system. Talking throughout a presentation at his synthetic intelligence firm xAI, Musk stated the cost software is presently in restricted beta testing and will increase globally after the trial interval.

“That is supposed to be the place the place all cash is — the central supply of financial transactions,” Musk stated.

In accordance with Musk, the platform reaches roughly 600 million month-to-month customers.

X Cracks Down on Crypto-Linked Engagement Apps

As reported, X has lately come below scrutiny after limiting API entry for so-called InfoFi and engagement-reward initiatives, a lot of which have been tied to crypto incentives.

The corporate stated it might not permit apps that reward customers for posting or interacting on X, citing issues over AI-generated spam and manipulation.

Past crypto, X’s broader AI technique has drawn regulatory consideration, notably in Europe, the place authorities have raised issues about Grok’s image-generation options.

The platform has since restricted sure capabilities and launched safeguards after investigations have been launched.

X’s choice to clamp down on so-called InfoFi purposes despatched contemporary shockwaves via the crypto market, dragging a number of tokens sharply decrease and forcing a rethink throughout a distinct segment that had grown tightly intertwined with the social media platform.

The instant market response was led by KAITO, the token linked to the Kaito platform, which slid roughly 20% in a single day as traders digested what many noticed as a structural risk slightly than a short-term coverage tweak.

The put up Elon Musk’s X to Launch Good Cashtags Enabling In-App Inventory and Crypto Buying and selling appeared first on Cryptonews.

Airbnb integrates giant language fashions for personalised lodging search and journey planning help. The corporate is testing pure language search and increasing buyer assist automation.

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky introduced a large-scale integration of enormous language fashions into the service. New options will permit the applying to "know" its person, offering personalised advert search, help in journey planning, and simplified property administration instruments for hosts. This was reported by Techcrunch, writes UNN.

Particulars

The corporate is already testing search utilizing pure language queries, permitting prospects to ask advanced questions on housing as a substitute of utilizing customary filters. Ahmad Al-Dahle, a former Llama mannequin developer at Meta, was introduced in to enhance the system. Sooner or later, Airbnb plans to combine sponsored affords straight into the conversational interface, making promoting a part of a stay dialogue with the traveler.

Automation of assist and monetary success

Particular consideration is paid to the assist service, the place clever bots already independently resolve 30% of buyer issues in North America. Chesky plans to increase language protection and add voice capabilities to automate the processing of most requests. Concurrently with the technological replace, the corporate demonstrated monetary stability, reporting income of $2.78 billion for the fourth quarter, which is 12% greater than final 12 months's figures.

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