Crypto
exchanges spent the past year racing into CFD trading and tokenized equities.
Now they’re hunting prediction markets.
Crypto.com
officially launched OG this week, a consumer-facing prediction markets platform
that allows users to bet on real-world outcomes ranging from Super Bowl winners
to economic data releases. The app went live following
six months of rapid expansion in Crypto.com’s prediction markets business,
which grew 40 times week-over-week during that period.
The company
is now splitting off the product into a separate brand aimed at competing in
what it describes as a multibillion-dollar sector. The move comes after crypto
platforms increasingly
challenged traditional CFD brokers throughout 2025 by expanding into forex, commodities, and stock
indices.
Kris
Marszalek, co-founder and CEO of Crypto.com, said the company aims to replicate
its cryptocurrency branding success in prediction markets. “Our goal is to
establish OG as the premier sports prediction market technology with the best
customer experience,” he said.
Crypto Exchanges Bundle
Products Beyond Digital Assets
Major
crypto platforms have aggressively expanded their product ranges over the past
year. Gate.io added CFD trading on gold, forex, and equities in January
2026. MetaMask
reached 1 billion dollars in spot trading volume after adding over 200 tokenized stocks in
early February.
Robinhood
introduced support for more than 200 tokenized U.S. equities in European
markets last summer, while Coinbase sought SEC approval to offer
blockchain-based stocks as part of its push toward becoming an
“everything-exchange”.
Analysts have
argued that
self-custody models and blockchain infrastructure could eventually disrupt
traditional retail trading platforms that have dominated forex and CFD markets
for decades.
Crypto.com’s OG Adds
Social Features and Plans Margin Contracts
OG operates
through Crypto.com Derivatives North America (CDNA), a CFTC-registered exchange
and clearinghouse that Crypto.com acquired in 2022. The platform offers event
contracts regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission across sports,
politics, finance, and entertainment categories.
Users can
trade on probabilities aggregated from market activity, which the platform
displays as continuously updated forecasts. The app includes social functions
that let participants connect with other traders, share predictions, and track
performance on a leaderboard.
OG plans to
introduce margin trading through Crypto.com’s federally licensed futures
commission merchant, which would make it the first prediction markets platform
to offer leveraged contracts. The feature is subject to CFTC certification.
Competition Intensifies for Prediction Market Users
Coinbase
entered prediction markets in December 2025 as platforms increasingly bundled multiple
financial products in single interfaces. Backpack
launched a unified account system in January 2026 to consolidate prediction contracts from multiple
sources.
Bitget
Wallet researchers recently argued that wallets are
becoming the primary battleground for prediction market access as competition shifts from liquidity
provision to user interface control.
Crypto.com
first entered regulated derivatives in late 2024 when CDNA became the first
platform to offer CFTC-approved sports event contracts. The company expanded
its licenses in October 2025 by securing approval to offer cleared margined
derivatives on cryptocurrencies and other assets.
Leadership and Market
Positioning
Nick
Lundgren, who serves as Crypto.com’s chief legal officer, was named CEO of OG.
Lundgren led the acquisition of CDNA in 2022 and oversaw the platform’s entry
into sports contracts as president of the exchange.
“Crypto.com
was the first company to offer federally licensed sports prediction contracts
in the United States, so launching OG is very fitting,” Lundgren said.
“We see a massive opportunity to provide fans with an all-encompassing
platform where it pays to be right.”
The
platform is initially focused on the U.S. market but plans international
expansion in the near future. OG is available through iOS and Android apps as
well as a web interface at OG.com.
This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.
Source link
