#cryptonews
Crypto.com is moving deeper into prediction markets with plans to staff an internal market-making desk, a step that is drawing renewed attention to how these platforms operate and whether exchanges may end up trading directly against their own users.
The Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange is recruiting a quantitative trader to join a team responsible for buying and selling financial contracts tied to the outcomes of sporting events on its prediction market platform.
The hiring effort comes as prediction markets expand rapidly across both crypto and traditional finance. These platforms allow users to trade contracts that settle based on real-world outcomes, such as sports results or political events, with prices reflecting the market’s implied probability.
According to a recent Bloomberg report, the role would sit on Crypto.com’s market-making desk and involve actively trading against customer orders to support liquidity across sports contracts and other derivatives offered on the company’s U.S. platform.
Polymarket, a major decentralized platform, is also reported to be building its own internal market-making team. Crypto.com’s job listing states that the new hire would seek to “maximize profits while carefully managing risks,” language that has fueled debate over whether the firm is effectively trading against its users.
Those concerns have already surfaced elsewhere in the industry. Kalshi, one of the most prominent regulated prediction market operators, runs an internal unit known as Kalshi Trading.
Critics argue that when an exchange or its affiliate takes the opposite side of customer trades, the structure begins to resemble a traditional sportsbook that profits from customer losses.
