Prediction Market and Consumer Crypto Marketing Protections
/rant
It feels like every day I see new launches around speculative / crypto driven businesses. I don’t think any of these things are inherently bad - speculation should be legal but I think the industry as a whole is missing tons of guardrails when it comes to marketing what these products truly are to retail investors. Every time I see it, it makes me angry.
The way that these products are being marketed masks the risk to retail investors who do not understand the way that proprietary trading and marketing making works in sophisticated markets. I believe these investors should be allowed to trade in these markets by virtue of freedom, but I don’t think the companies that are winning deserve the right to mask the risk or who they are trading against.
The thing that makes me the most frustrated is because the marketing and dealmaking rules aren’t clear it disadvantages the entrepreneurs trying to do things fairly - it’s impossible to win by playing fair in these markets against large companies that are being sleezy by masking the risk, creating social media hype that doesn’t disclose the way the markets work, and only catering to a small set of professional traders rather than every day users. I’ve lived the reality of competing with cheaters directly and it pisses me off that the cheating is still ongoing. By principle, when I was working in crypto I never did influencer or prop trading deals or traded meaningfully myself. We just let markets play out naturally. It’s disgusting and not something I want to be around. I’m embarrassed I was ever associated with the industry, and embarrassed for some former colleagues for engaging and profiting off of it.
We need better laws.
/endrant