World prediction market fakes Solana exit for Robinhood Chain, calls it a prank 🎭

World, a Solana-based prediction market that launched on July 1 inside the Phantom wallet, told followers on July 8 it was migrating to Robinhood Chain, then admitted the next day that the announcement was a staged joke. The gag generated roughly 2.3 million views on the project's own post and briefly fooled portions of the crypto industry, with several outlets reporting the move as fact before World reversed course.

The fake announcement named a real destination: Robinhood Chain is an Arbitrum-based Layer 2 that launched on July 1 for tokenized stocks and recorded a daily volume of $563.9 million during the same week, according to DefiLlama. World had gone live on Solana with Chainlink ($LINK) handling data and settlement, and Solana's official account had promoted the debut a week earlier. The project thanked the Solana Foundation and posted a polished logo for the supposed migration before revealing it as a prank on July 9.

Reception split along familiar lines. Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko amplified the gag, and CoinGecko co-founder Bobby Ong called it effective marketing. "I'm still trying to figure out if they moved to Robinhood Chain or staying at Solana. I think this is a parody and they are actually staying on Solana. I guess it triggered many folks and got them the attention that they really want, which is all that matters in consumer tech," Ong said. Critics described the stunt as a bait-and-switch that erodes trust in a product handling real bets.

The on-chain data tells a separate story. An independent dashboard built by analyst ario_57 shows roughly $4.37 million in notional volume for World since launch, with daily users peaking near 3,000. That volume crested around July 6, two days before the prank, meaning the stunt coincided with existing momentum rather than creating it. The 2.3 million views figure is World's own tally, a measure of attention rather than adoption.

Prediction markets are under fresh regulatory and public scrutiny, raising the cost of any misstep in user trust. World has a working product behind the joke and has now captured crypto's attention, leaving the question of whether that attention converts into lasting users for the weeks ahead.