Meta Is Building 'Arena,' an AI-Powered Prediction-Market App to Rival Kalshi and Polymarket — No Crypto at Launch

NPR·medium signal

Per a June 23 NYT report (widely corroborated June 24), Mark Zuckerberg has directed a team to build a standalone app called Arena where users forecast politics, sports, entertainment, and world events using a daily allotment of 'play money' / video-game-style points rather than cash, with no crypto or blockchain at launch (a deliberate contrast to USDC-based Polymarket and CFTC-regulated Kalshi). Meta has not ruled out real-money betting later. The report alone moved markets, sending DraftKings and Robinhood lower as investors weighed a ~3-billion-user platform entering prediction markets.