From Water Breaks to Handshakes: How Prediction Markets Monetize the Mundane

In 2026, the hottest new asset isn’t an AI startup or a meme coin. It’s…a word.

Somewhere, a trader is staring at a livestream, whispering, “Say it, say it,” because “will the announcer say doink?” is now, functionally, a derivative. Prediction markets have turned the attention economy into the tradable economy—and once you see the menu, you’ll never watch a speech the same way again.

Prediction markets (often sold as “event contracts”) boil the future down to a simple binary: pay $1 if X happens, $0 if it doesn’t, with prices that read like implied odds. The popularity spike is real enough to trigger the classic American plot twist: regulators and courts. States and gaming commissions increasingly argue these look like unlicensed gambling. Platforms counter that they’re federally regulated derivatives under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which is now drafting clearer “event contract” rules as the category expands.

Legit and Not-so-Legit Usage (and How Weird It Gets)

The “respectable” use case is hedging: turning messy real-world risk into a position you can price and unwind. That’s why the entrants are getting more institutional. FanDuel and CME Group launched FanDuel Predicts, offering event contracts tied to financial benchmarks (such as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100) and commodities, as well as sports, in states where online sports betting isn’t legal.
Interactive Brokers provides access to ForecastEx forecast contracts, making “probability” tradable inside a brokerage-style workflow.

But the current reality is more chaotic: lots of sports volume, plus jurisdictional trench warfare. States are issuing cease-and-desist orders against multiple platforms (including Robinhood’s derivatives arm and Crypto.com), and the CFTC is signaling it may defend federal turf in court. Meanwhile, Reuters reports the CFTC is working on new regulations governing event contracts—translation: the grown-ups have arrived because the kids won’t stop inventing new ways to wager on reality.

And then there are “mention markets,” the genre that feels like Bloomberg Terminal meets group chat. ESPN reported that tens of millions of dollars have been staked on Kalshi’s NFL announcer mention markets this season—down to whether a broadcast team will say a single term during a game—and noted markets on what companies will say on earnings calls (yes, including whether Chipotle will say “al pastor”).

The Wall Street Journal’s “mention trading” write-up frames the appeal—and the risk—of turning transcripts into tradable outcomes. Which is why integrity is the awkward subplot: Business Insider reported Kalshi banned and fined traders for alleged insider trading tied to a YouTube editor and a political candidate.

So, what are the most minuscule or bizarre things you can bet on right now? Here are a few real markets that made our editors blink twice:

Speech-as-stopwatch: Kalshi publishes odds on how long President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech will last, turning political theater into duration trading.

Civics, but make it liquid: Polymarket’s multi-outcome market on State of the Union length has pushed close to $1 million in trading volume.

The handshake industrial complex: “How long will Trump and JD Vance shake hands?” monetized body language.

Hydration oracle: “Will Trump drink water during the State of the Union?” The prediction means your group chat is basically a derivatives desk now.

Wardrobe forecasting: “Donald Trump tie color at the State of the Union?” is a sign that politics has become a red-carpet vertical.

Philanthropy, priced: “Will MrBeast raise $40M for clean water?” showcases how prediction markets increasingly double as a live feed of internet obsession.

Want “wild” without real money? Social platforms like Manifold let users spin up play-money markets on everything from personal diet goals to whether a market will hit 50 unique traders—proof that if you give the internet a probability slider, it will immediately point it at itself.

Leading players beyond Polymarket and Kalshi now span: PredictIt (politics), ForecastEx (via Interactive Brokers), FanDuel Predicts (with CME), app-based entrants like Robinhood Derivatives and Crypto.com offering event contracts, and crypto/on-chain newcomers like Myriad, which offers points and stablecoin markets depending on location.

Prediction markets feel inevitable because they sit at the intersection of three unstoppable trends: the gamification of finance, the financialization of culture, and the internet’s compulsion to keep score.

Today, they’re part forecasting tool, part legal test case, part dopamine machine.

Tomorrow, if regulators draw clear lines and liquidity deepens, they might become a serious risk-transfer layer for the digital economy. Either way, the next time an announcer says “doink,” somebody’s portfolio is going to move.