Bitbank's Prediction Market Warning

Japanese crypto exchange Bitbank announced on its blog that customer accounts may be frozen if deposits or withdrawals linked to prediction markets are confirmed.

My initial reaction was that this was actually pretty customer-friendly. Most crypto exchanges write their terms of service so that accounts can be blocked on mere suspicion of anything the exchange considers inappropriate. Bitbank seemed to be taking a more principled approach: suspicion alone isn't enough - you need confirmed facts.

I was ready to give them credit for that - until I asked an AI to translate the full Bitbank post. Turns out the actual grounds for freezing an account are worded like this: "If deposits/withdrawals related to a prediction market service, or a service suspected of being related to such services, are confirmed."

So the only thing that actually needs to be confirmed is the deposit or withdrawal itself. Whether it's connected to a prediction market - suspicion is plenty. Same old story. Exchanges will be exchanges.

If you need to deposit crypto into a prediction market but don't have the right asset, there is no need to use an account-based exchange. Swap it on rabbit.io instead.