Solana-based World launches prediction market in Phantom, eyes sports politics macro
World, a Solana-based platform, has launched fully onchain prediction markets inside Phantom wallet with contracts on crypto prices, the 2026 World Cup, sports, politics, and culture. It competes with CFTC-regulated Polymarket and Kalshi. Sources suggest incumbents face no immediate pressure. The move follows Phantom's June 1 backend switch from Kalshi to World.xyz.
For World, the bet is that Solana's speed and Phantom's 20 million users can offset the regulatory shield and institutional liquidity that Polymarket and Kalshi have built. The platform enters a market where Phantom swaps prediction market backend from Kalshi to World.xyz already signals wallet-native distribution may trump compliance credentials for a subset of users. The timing is punishing: Kalshi and Polymarket just proved $2 billion in World Cup volume with DRW, Wintermute, and IMC providing institutional-grade market making, while Meta's experimental Arena threatens zero-cost play-money scale. World's summer window is narrow. If oracle delays or settlement friction surface during its sports and politics rollout, Phantom users revert to centralized venues instantly. If execution holds, it becomes a test case for whether crypto-native infrastructure can capture event-contract demand without CFTC registration, a question other Solana projects are watching for their own go-market timing.