Cleaning Up on Predictions?
The predictions market has not exactly covered itself in glory in recent times. Reports that punters were placing significant bets on the timing of a nuclear strike as a result of the conflict between the US and Iran left a particularly sour taste.
Singapore Summit: Meet the largest APAC brokers you know (and those you still don’t!)
As Finance Magnates has reported, platforms have taken a variety of measures to establish their credibility and reassure users that they are not allowing customers to make large sums by trading on insider information, whether that is military intelligence or locker room conversations.
It is ironic, though, that one of the leading players in this space has turned to Palantir to help it develop a next-generation sports integrity platform.
According to Polymarket founder and CEO Shayne Coplan, the partnership will allow his business to apply world-class analytics and monitoring to sports markets while building tools that can help leagues and teams maintain confidence in the games.
Tradermayne: Polymarket Just Partnered With Palantir And It Is A Massive Deal.
“This is a massive partnership here between Polymarket between Palantir. Obviously, the move towards more regulations. They’re gonna be working with Palantir’s ability to detect data integrity using… pic.twitter.com/9BVp6VUzEY
— The Order Book (@OrderBookShow) March 17, 2026
This is nothing new, of course. Gambling firms already monitor betting patterns on sports events, and a number of high-profile individuals in various sports have been sanctioned for either using inside information to bet on the outcome of contests or manipulating events to produce a specific outcome.
In addition, the announcement could have come at a better time. While the firm, sometimes referred to as the scariest AI company on the planet, continues to embed itself at the very top of the US defence sector, concerns have been expressed over its influence on both sides of the Atlantic.
In the US, Palantir’s work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been a major talking point in midterm election campaigns, as candidates seek to undermine their rivals by pointing to their links to the software firm.
In the UK, where the Financial Conduct Authority has given Palantir a contract to analyse internal intelligence data as part of its drive to combat financial crime, members of parliament have suggested that such sensitive information should not be made available to a company that already has hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of contracts with the health service and the UK defence sector.
Boris Johnson Has an Opinion on Crypto. Really?
‘It is better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt’: this quote from Abraham Lincoln feels particularly appropriate when discussing the latest pearl of wisdom from Boris Johnson.
In a desperate attempt to remain relevant after a stint as prime minister that was widely considered to be among the very worst in British history, BoJo continues to sound off about various issues, ranging from weight loss to Brexit, in his role as the country’s most overpaid newspaper columnist.
Cryptocurrency is the subject of Johnson’s latest rant. In a column earlier this month, he referred to Bitcoin as a ‘giant Ponzi scheme’ built on collective belief rather than tangible value and went on to suggest that investors would be better advised to put their money into Pikachu Pokémon cards.
I’ve long suspected Bitcoin is a giant Ponzi scheme and now I’m hearing tales of woe that make me fear I’m right.https://t.co/rTny2NBaYB
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) March 13, 2026
The backlash was swift, with many observers pointing out that referencing schemes where investors had lost money is a reminder that scammers will use whatever means at their disposal to dupe unsuspecting targets, rather than evidence that the protocol is flawed.
As one expert explained, a large proportion of the losses attributed to cryptocurrency are due to phishing, fraudulent investment schemes, or unauthorised intermediaries, rather than the blockchain network itself. Consequently, regulators are progressively distinguishing between the enforcement of crypto fraud and the technical categorisation of digital assets.
It is hard to say how many people would take financial advice from a man who apparently needed an £800,000 credit facility to cover expenses, including childcare and divorce costs, when he was occupying the highest office in the UK government.
His previous comments describing being paid a quarter of a million pounds a year for producing what could charitably be described as unremarkable copy for a different national newspaper as ‘chicken feed’ as long ago as 2009 – when he was also the mayor of London on a yearly income of around £140,000 – should be a red flag to anyone who remains to be convinced that he is an unreliable source of investment guidance.
Squaring the Institutional Crypto Circle
We live in a society where growth is seen as essential for our economic (and personal) development. A country’s financial health is measured by GDP, and social media is awash with shortcuts to physical and emotional wealth.
In this context, a survey of institutional investors revealing that interest in operational crypto adoption was unchanged from the first half of 2025 to the last six months of last year does not appear to bode well for those promoting digital assets.
The findings of the GlobalData survey suggest that much of the stablecoin growth seen in 2025 may have been driven by usage rather than the result of deeper core system integration by regulated financial institutions.
The report highlights how advancements in regulation led to considerable noise regarding the adoption of cryptocurrency by financial institutions in several advanced economies last year, driven by the expectation that institutional participation will achieve the usage scale that new decentralised financial services have struggled to attain.
However, there is also recognition that the process of institutionalisation inherently contradicts the foundational principles of cryptocurrency, where early adopters chose decentralised money to bypass intermediaries and maintain anonymity.
What was once heralded as the first genuinely borderless currency and method of transferring money has now found itself seeking national regulatory approvals and undergoing institutions’ AML/KYC checks to operate, all the while losing some of the momentum and use cases that initially made the technology popular.
Consequently, increased institutional involvement will not necessarily lead to greater usage for the industry on a global scale, especially if the original value proposition becomes compromised.
Nonetheless, institutional participation will be crucial for the adoption of digital assets in the US, which was the only market to demonstrate a significant rise in organisational plans for cryptocurrency adoption.
Cleaning Up on Predictions?
The predictions market has not exactly covered itself in glory in recent times. Reports that punters were placing significant bets on the timing of a nuclear strike as a result of the conflict between the US and Iran left a particularly sour taste.
Singapore Summit: Meet the largest APAC brokers you know (and those you still don’t!)
As Finance Magnates has reported, platforms have taken a variety of measures to establish their credibility and reassure users that they are not allowing customers to make large sums by trading on insider information, whether that is military intelligence or locker room conversations.
It is ironic, though, that one of the leading players in this space has turned to Palantir to help it develop a next-generation sports integrity platform.
According to Polymarket founder and CEO Shayne Coplan, the partnership will allow his business to apply world-class analytics and monitoring to sports markets while building tools that can help leagues and teams maintain confidence in the games.
Tradermayne: Polymarket Just Partnered With Palantir And It Is A Massive Deal.
“This is a massive partnership here between Polymarket between Palantir. Obviously, the move towards more regulations. They’re gonna be working with Palantir’s ability to detect data integrity using… pic.twitter.com/9BVp6VUzEY
— The Order Book (@OrderBookShow) March 17, 2026
This is nothing new, of course. Gambling firms already monitor betting patterns on sports events, and a number of high-profile individuals in various sports have been sanctioned for either using inside information to bet on the outcome of contests or manipulating events to produce a specific outcome.
In addition, the announcement could have come at a better time. While the firm, sometimes referred to as the scariest AI company on the planet, continues to embed itself at the very top of the US defence sector, concerns have been expressed over its influence on both sides of the Atlantic.
In the US, Palantir’s work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been a major talking point in midterm election campaigns, as candidates seek to undermine their rivals by pointing to their links to the software firm.
In the UK, where the Financial Conduct Authority has given Palantir a contract to analyse internal intelligence data as part of its drive to combat financial crime, members of parliament have suggested that such sensitive information should not be made available to a company that already has hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of contracts with the health service and the UK defence sector.
Boris Johnson Has an Opinion on Crypto. Really?
‘It is better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt’: this quote from Abraham Lincoln feels particularly appropriate when discussing the latest pearl of wisdom from Boris Johnson.
In a desperate attempt to remain relevant after a stint as prime minister that was widely considered to be among the very worst in British history, BoJo continues to sound off about various issues, ranging from weight loss to Brexit, in his role as the country’s most overpaid newspaper columnist.
Cryptocurrency is the subject of Johnson’s latest rant. In a column earlier this month, he referred to Bitcoin as a ‘giant Ponzi scheme’ built on collective belief rather than tangible value and went on to suggest that investors would be better advised to put their money into Pikachu Pokémon cards.
I’ve long suspected Bitcoin is a giant Ponzi scheme and now I’m hearing tales of woe that make me fear I’m right.https://t.co/rTny2NBaYB
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) March 13, 2026
The backlash was swift, with many observers pointing out that referencing schemes where investors had lost money is a reminder that scammers will use whatever means at their disposal to dupe unsuspecting targets, rather than evidence that the protocol is flawed.
As one expert explained, a large proportion of the losses attributed to cryptocurrency are due to phishing, fraudulent investment schemes, or unauthorised intermediaries, rather than the blockchain network itself. Consequently, regulators are progressively distinguishing between the enforcement of crypto fraud and the technical categorisation of digital assets.
It is hard to say how many people would take financial advice from a man who apparently needed an £800,000 credit facility to cover expenses, including childcare and divorce costs, when he was occupying the highest office in the UK government.
His previous comments describing being paid a quarter of a million pounds a year for producing what could charitably be described as unremarkable copy for a different national newspaper as ‘chicken feed’ as long ago as 2009 – when he was also the mayor of London on a yearly income of around £140,000 – should be a red flag to anyone who remains to be convinced that he is an unreliable source of investment guidance.
Squaring the Institutional Crypto Circle
We live in a society where growth is seen as essential for our economic (and personal) development. A country’s financial health is measured by GDP, and social media is awash with shortcuts to physical and emotional wealth.
In this context, a survey of institutional investors revealing that interest in operational crypto adoption was unchanged from the first half of 2025 to the last six months of last year does not appear to bode well for those promoting digital assets.
The findings of the GlobalData survey suggest that much of the stablecoin growth seen in 2025 may have been driven by usage rather than the result of deeper core system integration by regulated financial institutions.
The report highlights how advancements in regulation led to considerable noise regarding the adoption of cryptocurrency by financial institutions in several advanced economies last year, driven by the expectation that institutional participation will achieve the usage scale that new decentralised financial services have struggled to attain.
However, there is also recognition that the process of institutionalisation inherently contradicts the foundational principles of cryptocurrency, where early adopters chose decentralised money to bypass intermediaries and maintain anonymity.
What was once heralded as the first genuinely borderless currency and method of transferring money has now found itself seeking national regulatory approvals and undergoing institutions’ AML/KYC checks to operate, all the while losing some of the momentum and use cases that initially made the technology popular.
Consequently, increased institutional involvement will not necessarily lead to greater usage for the industry on a global scale, especially if the original value proposition becomes compromised.
Nonetheless, institutional participation will be crucial for the adoption of digital assets in the US, which was the only market to demonstrate a significant rise in organisational plans for cryptocurrency adoption.
