2025-12-25 02:21:14

Recently, a striking piece of news has been circulating in the industry. A leading compliant platform has just spent $2.9 billion to acquire one of the world's largest crypto options exchanges. At the same time, another top trading platform, alongside it, revealed plans for 2026: to launch prediction markets and significantly expand its tokenized stock business.

It all sounds quite normal, right? Strategic innovation, business expansion, embracing traditional assets. But if you think carefully about the logic behind it, you'll see a deeper trend taking shape.

Over the years, the role of crypto exchanges has quietly changed. They used to be just trading channels, then became stages for leverage and futures trading. Now, what are they evolving into? A comprehensive financial ecosystem that combines derivatives, prediction markets, and tokenized assets.

From a different perspective, exchanges are no longer solely profiting from match-making fees but are deeply involved in the design and issuance of every financial product. From trading fees to derivatives, to proprietary tokens, and prediction markets—each link is profitable. Every user operation, every bet, every position becomes a revenue source for the platform.

What does this mean? It means platforms are gradually shifting from neutral market matchmakers to direct participants with vested interests. They profit when you make money, and they profit when you lose money. Now, they even want to issue their own tokens and design gambling products.

The winners of this game are clear: the big platforms that control traffic and pricing power. They have already used capital and scale to write the industry's rules into their own scripts. The ideals of decentralization and financial democratization have long faded from the stage amid rounds of funding and mergers.

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DAOdreamer

· 12h ago

2.9 billion USD invested, in simple terms, it's just a few people monopolizing the gambling table --- Prediction markets, token stocks... sound fancy, but essentially it's just another way to take fees --- From a matcher to a casino owner, that reversal came a bit too quickly --- The dream of decentralization has already died; now it's just about who has the bigger wallet --- Laughing to death, every user operation is working for the platform, so true --- Is this the fate of crypto? In the end, it's still being played out by big capital --- Traffic + pricing power = discourse power, indeed the rules are written by the big players --- From transaction fees to prediction markets, the tricks are more and more diverse, and the tricks are more and more elaborate --- They call it innovation, but really it's just trying to get a piece of the pie from every angle --- We used to talk about democratization, but now it's just a new financial oligarchy

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MoonRocketTeam

· 13h ago

2.9 billion USD invested, this round of financing is just fueling the booster. Major platforms are about to take off. The pump machine is already formed; retail investors are just the weeds on that K-line. Dopamine can't save them. Decentralization ideals? They've long since burned out their fuel. Now, only the track of capital games is running. This round depends on who can break through the atmosphere first; other players have already been left behind the track. Where is the promised financial democratization? Now it's all big players writing the rules, and we're just here to run alongside.

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