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Who saw this coming? Bettors, apparently. Coinbase Global, one of the largest crypto exchanges on the market, announced its third-quarter 2025 earnings on Thursdaya relatively benign event by most measures. But it wasnt the revenue or profit numbers that caught many peoples attention. It was some specific comments and words spoken by CEO and cofounder Brian Armstrong. Armstrong, near the end of Coinbases earnings call, squeezed in a last-second barrage of keywords. I was a little distracted because I was tracking the prediction market about what Coinbase will say on their next earnings call, and I just want to add here the words Bitcoin, Ethereum, blockchain, staking, and Web3 to make sure we get those in before the end of the call. While that may not have meant a lot to most listeners, Armstrong was actually saying specific words that bettors on prediction markets had wagered he would say. Prediction market bettors on platforms such as Kalshi had made bets that Armstrong or other Coinbase executives would say certain keywords during the call, and up until that point, they had not. So by saying those words at the end of the call, Armstrong handed some bettors a win. That also meant that he handed others a loss. Unorthodox? You bet, but its all part of a burgeoning new world where sports betting is legal in many states, and American adults can make online bets on almost anything theyd likefrom the outcomes of presidential elections to, in this case, what executives of publicly traded companies will say during an earnings call. While it seems clear that there are going to be a lot of opportunities to rig or manipulate wagers such as these, this is likely the first time that the CEO of a large, public company has gone out of their way to decide the outcome of a wager in such a way. Fast Company has reached out to Coinbase for further comment, but has yet to receive a response. After the call, Armstrong replied via X to say, lol this was funhappened spontaneously when someone on our team dropped a link in the chat. One X user called out exactly what appeared to have happened: At the end of the Coinbase earnings call today, Brian Armstrong pulled up the mention market and rattled off all the words that weren’t said yet, summing it up as, What a wild time to be alive. Shares of Coinbase (Nasdaq: COIN) were up around 3.5% in early trading on Friday, with the stock up more than 27% year to date.
Category:
E-Commerce
Amazon posted higher fiscal third quarter profit and sales compared with a year ago, fueled by accelerating growth in its cloud computing business and strong spending by its customers looking for low prices at a time when inflation is resurging.The results, announced Thursday, beat Wall Street expectations. The company’s prominent cloud computing arm also surpassed analysts’ expectations, rising 20%. But Amazon issued a cautious sales outlook for the fiscal fourth quarter.Shares, however, soared nearly 13% in after-hours trading.Analysts are analyzing Amazon’s results, along with other retailers’ earnings performances, to get insight into how shoppers are spending heading into the holiday season and how the online behemoth is managing cost increases from President Donald Trump’s tariffs.But Amazon, based in Seattle, is also under pressure to shore up confidence among investors that its computing arm Amazon Web Services is just as powerful as Microsoft’s Azure and Google’s Google Cloud platform. Amazon delivered better-than-expected 20% growth for AWS, following a 17.5% growth in the fiscal second quarter. Andy Jassy, president and CEO of Amazon, noted in a statement that AWS is growing at a pace it hasn’t seen since 2022.Last week Amazon grappled with a massive outage of AWS after a problem disrupted internet use around the world for most of the day, taking down a broad range of online services, including social media, gaming, food delivery, streaming and financial platforms.Jassy also noted Amazon is seeing strong momentum and growth across Amazon as artificial intelligence drives “meaningful improvements in every corner of our business.”Jassy also pointed out that in stores, Amazon continues to realize the benefits of innovating in its fulfillment network, and it’s on track to deliver to Prime members at the fastest speeds ever again this year, expand same-day delivery of perishable groceries to over 2,300 communities by end of year, and double the number of rural communities with access to Amazon’s same-day and next-day delivery.Amazon is rapidly automating its warehouses, raising big questions on how many workers it will need in the future.In fact, Amazon announced on Tuesday that it’s cutting about 14,000 corporate jobs as it ramps up spending on artificial intelligence and cuts costs elsewhere. Teams and individuals impacted by the job cuts were notified Tuesday. Amazon has about 350,000 corporate employees and a total workforce of about 1.56 million. The cuts amount to about a 4% reduction in its corporate workforce.Jassy told analysts that the announcement on job cuts wasn’t “really financially driven and it’s not even really AI driven.”“It’s culture,” he said. “And if you grow as fast as we did for several years, the size of businesses, the number of people, the number of locations, the types of businesses you’re in, you end up with a lot more people than what you had before, and you end up with a lot more layers.”Late last month, Amazon unveiled a new robotics system being tested in South Carolina for its warehouses that coordinates multiple arms to perform picking, stowing, and consolidating tasks simultaneously. This technology effectively collapses three assembly lines into one, the company said.Amazon is also testing an AI agent that helps human managers deploy workers and avoid bottlenecks. The system allows operators to spend less time analyzing dashboards and more time coaching teams, creating safer work environments, the company said.Amazon’s strategies seem to be powering its latest results.Amazon posted net income of $21.12 billion, or $1.95 per share, for the quarter ended Sept. 30. That’s up from $15.33 billion, or $1.43 per share, a year ago.Analysts had expected $1.57 per share for the quarter, according to FactSet.Amazon’s sales rose to $180.2 billion, up from $158.88 billion in the year ago period.Analysts had expected $177.91 billion, according to FactSet.The number of items that Amazon sold in the latest period increased 11%, the company said.In late July, Jassy touted its more than 2 million sellers in its third-party marketplace, all with different strategies of whether to pass on higher costs to shoppers. He also told analysts that it hadn’t seen “diminishing demand nor prices meaningful appreciating.”Amazon said it expects sales for the fiscal fourth quarter to be in the range of $206 billion to $213 billion. Anne D’Innocenzio, AP Business Writer
Category:
E-Commerce
A deadly outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes linked to prepared pasta meals is continuing to spread across the United States. Since September 25, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have identified three new states with infections, bringing the total number to 18 states. The agencies first reported food recalls associated with the outbreak in June. In the last month, seven new cases have been identified, alongside six new hospitalizations. That brings their respective totals to 27 cases and 25 hospitalizations since the outbreak began. Two more deaths have also been reported, with six deaths recorded in total. There is also one reported instance of fetal loss during a pregnancy-associated illness. Where has the Listeria outbreak spread? The outbreak is widespread, with states largely reporting infections in the West, Southeast, and Midwest regions. The CDC has produced a map of where Listeria cases have occurred. Below is a full list of all impacted states: California Florida Hawaii Illinois Indiana Louisiana Michigan Minnesota Missouri North Carolina Nevada Ohio Oregon South Carolina Texas Utah Virginia Washington window.addEventListener("message",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}); Which products have been impacted? At least nine different prepared meal products have been recalled in the wake of this outbreak, with major retailers such as Kroger, Trader Joes, and Albertsons being among those that have recalled products. Used-by dates on recalled products now extend to as recent as this week. The FDA has a full list of impacted products along with product images on its website. What Listeria symptoms should I look out for? The outbreak was first discovered in August 2024, but the number of new cases reported as part of the outbreak has increased over the last several weeks, according to a timeline on the CDC website. According to the FDA, a person who becomes infected by Listeria-contaminated food will normally begin exhibiting symptoms within two weeks. However, signs can appear up to 10 weeks later. Mild symptoms of a Listeria infection, known as listeriosis, include: Fever Muscle aches Nausea Tiredness Vomiting A severe form of listeriosis can bring symptoms such as: Confusion Convulsions Headache Loss of balance Stiff neck Individuals who are pregnant, 65 and older, or have weakened immune systems are at greater risk. The CDC directs people to call a healthcare provider immediately if you experience any of the above symptoms after consuming affected foods. Beyond not eating any of the recalled foods you might have purchased, the CDC also says to clean anything that might have touched these foods. These areas could be in the refrigerator, containers, or surfaces. Listeria can live in a fridge and easily spread to other foods or surfaces. What else is there to know? The investigation is ongoing, so its possible that more products will be added to the listeria recall. Watch the FDAs and CDCs dedicated pages for any updates.
Category:
E-Commerce
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