Coinbase faced strong user backlash for pushing prediction markets; the CEO claimed it was a bug and apologized.

CoinFeed reported on March 29th that, according to Cointelegraph, Coinbase has sparked strong dissatisfaction by bombarding users with notifications for the March Madness basketball prediction market, with users accusing it of indirectly inducing gambling. Coinbase's prediction market feature, launched in January of this year in partnership with Kalshi, has been criticized for excessive notifications, raising concerns about trust within the industry. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong responded that the notification issue was a bug and that they have begun fixing it and apologized to users. Meanwhile, the US prediction market is facing state-level regulatory lawsuits and federal jurisdictional disputes, and Congress is also pushing forward related legislation and legal bans on such transactions.