Today in crypto, prediction market Kalshi provided an update on a market carveout for positions opened after the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was confirmed. Tokenized gold markets handle nearly all gold price discovery over the weekend and Anthropic CEO slams Pentagon decision as "unprecedented.”
Kalshi founder provides update on Iran's Khamenei market carveout
Tarek Mansour, the co-founder of prediction market Kalshi, provided an update, following the platform’s decision to void some positions that were opened after the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was confirmed.
“We don’t list markets directly tied to death. When there are markets where potential outcomes involve death, we design the rules to prevent people from profiting from death. That is what we did here,” Mansour said in a post on X.
Iranian state media reported the death early Sunday, after an attack launched by Israel and the United States a day earlier.
Kalshi is reimbursing all fees from the “Ali Khamenei out as Supreme Leader” market, and will pay traders with positions open before Khamenei died according to the “last-traded price before his death,” Mansour said.
Additionally, users who opened positions after thedeath of Khamenei were reimbursed the difference between the higher price paid for entry and the last traded price.
Tokenized gold leads ‘100% of weekend price discovery’ while CME futures are closed
Gold pricing shifts onto blockchain networks once US futures markets close for the weekend, according to Iggy Ioppe, former chief investment officer at Credit Suisse and now chief investment officer (CIO) at liquidity infrastructure firm Theo.
CME gold futures stop trading at 5:00 pm ET on Friday and reopen at 6:00 pm ET on Sunday. During that interval, regulated futures markets are inactive and most remaining activity occurs through private over-the-counter deals in Asia that are not publicly reported. As a result, tokenized gold assets such as PAX Gold (PAXG) and Tether Gold (XAUt) become the only continuously available trading venues.
“In terms of publicly visible price formation, onchain markets are responsible for virtually 100% of weekend price discovery,” Ioppe told Cointelegraph.
He added that when futures trading resumes, prices often align with movements that already occurred on blockchain markets. “We are seeing weekend moves reflected when CME reopens,” he said.
Anthropic CEO slams Pentagon decision as "unprecedented"
Dario Amodei, the CEO of AI company Anthropic, responded to Friday’s announcement from US officials that the company is a “supply chain risk.”
Anthropic has been a major partner to the United States Department of Defense and agreed with all the AI use cases proposed by US defense officials, except for fully autonomous weapons platforms and mass domestic surveillance. He told CBS News:
“These are things that are fundamental to Americans: the right, not to be spied on by the government, the right for our military officers to make decisions about war, themselves, and not turn it over completely to a machine.”
The announcement from the US “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth, and the subsequent news that rival AI company OpenAI signed a contract with the US Department of Defense to deploy its AI models, drew heavy backlash online.
