Connect with us
DAPA Banner

Crypto World

Polymarket snaps up Brahma as prediction market competition heats up

Published

on

Polymarket, Kalshi contract limits demonstrated in latest U.S. government shutdown fight

Prediction markets platform Polymarket announced Wednesday the acquisition of Brahma, a financial infrastructure company that built real-time execution and settlement systems for high-volume digital asset and fintech transactions.

“[Brahma has] quickly become an industry leader in building and developing programmable systems across blockchain systems, trading execution, and payments,” said Polymarket in a press release sent via email.

“Building reliable infrastructure across blockchain networks and traditional financial rails is hard — there are no shortcuts,” said Shayne Coplan, Polymarket CEO and founder.

“The Brahma team has shown they can design, operate, and scale complex products for sophisticated users,” he added. “As Polymarket grows, we’re intentionally adding teams that have already solved difficult problems and can execute at a very high level.”

Advertisement

A Polymarket spokesperson told CoinDesk the terms of the agreement are not being disclosed.

Brahma also released a statement Wednesday saying Polymarket acquired its DeFi infrastructure to bring its team and technology into the prediction market company as it seeks to scale its infrastructure suite.

“With this acquisition, our team and our technology live on, to help scale Polymarket and its ecosystem,” the Brahma team said in a post on X. “Our mission to build at the core of crypto continues.”

The acquisition brings Brahma’s team and technology into Polymarket, where they will focus on expanding the platform’s infrastructure and product suite. It also appears aimed at improving

Advertisement

Earlier this month, reports emerged that Polymarket was discussing potential fundraising rounds that could double 2025 valuation to about $20 billion. The discussions remain early and may not lead to finalized investments.

Prediction markets allow users to trade contracts tied to real-world events, including sports, politics and elections. Traders buy and sell contracts based on expected outcomes. The sector has grown significantly, with companies including Coinbase and Robinhood entering the space.

Brahma said it has processed more than $1 billion in transaction volume and over $100 million in total value locked. The company also said that all of its products, including Brahma Accounts, Agents and Swype.fun, will be phased out within 30 days. Users have been instructed to migrate funds and positions via its website and community channels.

Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

Crypto World

American Bitcoin (ABTC) bitcoin stack rises to 6,889 BTC coins

Published

on

American Bitcoin (ABTC) bitcoin stack rises to 6,889 BTC coins

American Bitcoin (ABTC), a mining and treasury firm tied to the Trump family, now holds more bitcoin than Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital (GLXY).

The company owns 6,899 BTC, worth about $491 million, edging past Galaxy’s 6,894 BTC to become the 16th largest public holder of the asset, according to data from BitcoinTreasuries.net.

The shift highlights how newer entrants continue to climb the rankings as firms compete to build large bitcoin reserves. At the top remains Michael Saylor’s Strategy (MSTR) with 761,068 BTC. It is followed by Marathon Digital (MARA) and Jack Mallers’ Twenty One Capital. Other major holders include Bullish (BLSH), CoinDesk’s parent company, Coinbase (COIN) and Tesla (TSLA).

American Bitcoin’s rise also underscores the growing role of Trump-affiliated entities in the market. Trump Media & Technology (DJT), the company linked to U.S. President Donald Trump, holds 9,542 BTC.

Advertisement

American Bitcoin, formed in March 2025 when Hut 8 (HUT) launched it as a majority-owned subsidiary focused on large-scale mining and holding bitcoin on its balance sheet. Hut 8 held an 80% stake at launch, with the remaining 20% owned by investors including Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.

Unlike some mining firms that have begun shifting resources toward artificial intelligence infrastructure, American Bitcoin has doubled down on mining. In March 2026, it bought 11,298 ASIC miners for its Drumheller, Alberta site. The machines are expected to lift its capacity by about 12% and add 3.05 exahashes per second, or roughly 0.3% of the global network’s computing power.

Bitcoin recently traded at $71,092, down 4% over the past day.

Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Crypto World

Fairshake’s $10 million Illinois misfire marks first big hitch in crypto political surge

Published

on

Crypto PAC Fairshake leaps into first midterm Senate race with $5 million in Alabama

Losing a race is unusual for the crypto industry’s political action committee, Fairshake, which has recorded a dominant record in the past two congressional elections. But the Illinois primaries this week saw its biggest-ever setback, likely to conclude with a new member of the Senate next year being somebody the PAC spent more than $10 million trying to defeat.

Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton won her Democratic primary, and her state’s Democrat lean means she’s likely to be its next senator after the November general election. One of Fairshake’s affiliates had devoted millions to purchase opposition advertising in that race and to support two of her opponents — representing more than 5% of the funds it’s said it had on-hand this year to devote to the congressional contests.

Not only did that money fail to win the outcome the group aimed for, but Stratton may eventually be a member of the 100-member Senate in which a single lawmaker can have a very potent influence, and she’ll be well aware of the industry’s efforts to oppose her. Crypto advocacy group Stand With Crypto, which evaluates politicians and political candidates, graded Stratton with an “F” on digital assets issues, even though she doesn’t have a significant personal record on crypto policy apart from the state’s industry-opposed regulatory regime signed by her boss last year.

“If you support pro-crypto policies, we will show up big,” Fairshake spokesman Geoff Vetter said in a statement. “If you oppose crypto and American innovation, we will show up big. That message is now clear at both the state level and federal level.”

Advertisement

The industry had mixed results in Illinois, supporting three pro-crypto candidates who won their primaries, and one other who didn’t. A person familiar with the PAC’s strategies said that it saw the loss as a one-off and that it was unlikely that other candidates it opposes down the road will have similar campaign resources they can tap.

Starting with the 2024 elections, Fairshake — primarily backed by Coinbase, a16z and Ripple — has targeted multiple Senate races in which it spent more than $10 million trying to influence the outcome. In its biggest spend in the last cycle, it devoted a towering $40 million to oppose former Senator Sherrod Brown, the Ohio Democrat who as ex-chairman of the Senate Banking Committee stood in the way of crypto legislation. (Brown is trying for a comeback this year, though Fairshake hasn’t yet announced its plan for Brown’s challenge of Senator Jon Husted.)

La Shawn Ford, who won his Illinois 7th District congressional primary to potentially join the House of Representatives next year, was another of Fairshake’s targets in a race in which the PAC spent almost $2.5 million. He accused the PAC of pumping out misleading and defamatory accusations in its ads. While he may represent a future political opponent for the sector, Fairshake celebrated wins for Donna Miller, Melissa Bean and incumbent Representative Nikki Budzinski in other House races in that state.

In 2024, Fairshake and its affiliates supported 53 candidates who ended up in Congress, losing in just five races, though many of the favored candidates were clear frontrunners. The super PAC was widely seen as establishing an industry model for a campaign-finance strategy in which more than $100 million devoted to congressional races (often primaries in districts in which one party has a dominant position) can influence the outcomes for dozens of seats. Fairshake purposefully didn’t craft its political ads to reference its own main aim to foster crypto, but it instead made ads based on whatever was the biggest political vulnerability it saw in opponents or positive points it noted in allies.

Advertisement

Fairshake has been very public about the $193 million war chest it started the campaign season with. The funds aren’t just an election tool. Crypto lobbyists and insiders have acknowledged that it also acts as a caution to sitting lawmakers weighing crypto legislation now moving through Congress. Members know that their decisions on crypto bills could bring either millions of dollars in support or opposition in their campaigns, often far exceeding the amount of money that congressional campaigns can raise from direct donors.

Fairshake doesn’t expect to win everything, but it does expect to win most of the races they get involved with, the person said, and it’ll make the point that opposing crypto innovation will be expensive for politicians.

Some candidates that Fairshake opposed in the past did go on to support crypto initiatives, but Stratton criticized the “MAGA-backed crypto bros” that opposed her. Her crypto intentions in the Senate, if she gets there, remain to be seen.

Read More: Crypto campaign PAC Fairshake marks first wins in 2026 U.S. congressional primaries

Advertisement

Source link

Continue Reading

Crypto World

Kalshi CEO Fires Back against Arizona Criminal Charges as ‘Total Overstep‘

Published

on

Kalshi CEO Fires Back against Arizona Criminal Charges as ‘Total Overstep‘

The prediction markets co-founder said that the company would “abide by court decisions“ but signaled that the charges were based partly on political bias and media attention.

Tarek Mansour, co-founder and CEO of prediction markets platform Kalshi, has pushed back against criminal charges filed by Arizona authorities this week, claiming that they were a “total overstep” and “not about gambling.”

On Tuesday, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced charges against the companies behind Kalshi, alleging that the company operated an “illegal gambling business in Arizona without a license” and offered illegal election wagering. Mansour said in a Wednesday Bloomberg interview that Mayes was attempting to “subvert the judicial process” by filing charges without a court decision in Kalshi’s own lawsuit against Arizona authorities last week. 

Advertisement

“We see this as a total overstep and we look forward to fighting it in court,” said Mansour.