Blockchain Platform Waves.Exchange Launches New COVID-19 Betting Market

Blockchain platform Waves.Exchange has launched a new prediction market allowing users to bet on whether the spread of the coronavirus pandemic has passed its peak.

Customers can now purchase ‘COVID-UP-SEP20’ and ‘COVID-DOWN-SEP20’ tokens to bet on whether the number of new weekly cases worldwide will exceed April 4–10’s record of 595,802 confirmed infections before September.

Waves.Exchange’s tokens are purchased in exchange for the stablecoin, Neutrino Dollar (USDN). All USDN used to buy the tokens are locked in escrow until September, and then distributed among the winners.

The campaign will ostensibly contribute to coronavirus charity initiatives.

Making waves with their new markets

At the start of April, Waves.Exchange launched predictive betting markets allowing users to speculate on whether the number of globally confirmed COVID-19 cases would increase or decrease on a week-over-week basis.

Speaking to Cointelegraph a Waves.Exchange spokesperson revealed the platform’s week-over-week predictive markets had finished, adding that its new September markets are likely to be its last COVID-19-themed betting market.

The number of weekly confirmed cases will be determined according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO).

Waves.Exchange donates 10,000 USDT to charity

Waves.Exchange encourages winning punters to contribute toward the ‘#CryptoCOVID19’ charity initiative that has raised nearly $4 million so far.

Waves.Exchange also contributed 10,000 Tether (USDT) to a dozen charities fighting the effects of coronavirus — including TheWaterProject, NoKidHungry, PencilsofPromise, and the Lupus Foundation. 

However, the weekly markets garnered just $4,500 in predictions.

Betting market born out of lockdown

The Waves spokesperson stated that the idea to launch coronavirus-related betting markets grew out of internal discussions regarding how long the pandemic and lock-down would last.

“As soon as the coronavirus epidemic started gaining momentum around the world and in Moscow, in particular, the Waves.Exchange team switched to working remotely,” the spokesperson stated:

“All the team members started wondering when it would all end and started sharing their predictions. Thus, the idea was born – to make predictions on the basis of the exchange […] We also thought that this could be a great charity initiative in support of the #CryptoCovid19 campaign.”