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Coinbase’s prediction markets platform went dark for about 19 minutes on July 9, affecting both web and mobile trading before the exchange restored full functionality. The outage started around 03:30 PDT and was resolved by 03:49 PDT, according to the company’s official status page.
The technical issue knocked out trading capabilities across Coinbase’s prediction markets product, which lets users trade event contracts on outcomes like elections and sports. No crypto tokens were involved, since prediction markets operate on a fundamentally different structure than spot trading.
Coinbase confirmed the restoration of services to Reuters shortly after the fix went live. The company’s status page tracked the incident from detection to resolution.
Coinbase launched its prediction markets feature for US users in January 2026, partnering with Kalshi, a CFTC-regulated operator of event contracts. The collaboration gave Coinbase a regulatory framework to lean on, sidestepping the kind of enforcement headaches that have plagued other corners of the crypto industry.
The product represents one pillar of Coinbase’s broader strategy to evolve beyond a pure-play crypto exchange. The company has been systematically adding financial products, including stock trading and AI-powered tools, in what amounts to a deliberate march toward becoming an “everything exchange.”
Polymarket proved the concept during the 2024 US presidential election, when its prediction contracts became arguably more closely watched than traditional polling.
By partnering with Kalshi rather than building its own regulated infrastructure from scratch, Coinbase took the faster path to market. Event contracts traded through Kalshi fall under CFTC oversight, which provides a layer of regulatory legitimacy that pure crypto prediction platforms have struggled to achieve.
Some reports have suggested that internal errors, including an AI alert malfunction, may have been a contributing factor to this particular outage.
Analysts have generally been bullish on both Coinbase and Robinhood as vehicles for playing the prediction markets growth story. The logic is straightforward: if prediction markets follow the trajectory that sports betting did after legalization, the platforms with distribution and regulatory compliance will capture most of the value.
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