Crypto
A $50M USDT trade for AAVE executed through Aave and CoW Swap returned just 324 AAVE worth about $36K — not due to a hack, but 99% price impact. The incident raises new questions about DeFi guardrails and UX design.
March 13, 2026
Focus Areas
Editorial Director
Valerie Cross, Ph.D., is a prediction markets reporter and editor with over seven years covering the regulated gaming and betting industry. She previously served as Editor-in-Chief at Catena Media North America and now directs content at DeFi Rate.
Data Analysis
Valerie compiles DeFi Rate's weekly Kalshi volume reports, breaking down trading activity by category, surfacing trending markets, and tracking how volume shifts week over week. Each report pairs raw data with context on what's driving the numbers — from regulatory catalysts to viral moments.
Legislation
She spent five years as Editor-in-Chief at Catena Media, where she tracked monthly revenue, handle, and market share across state-regulated sports betting and iGaming markets like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and New Jersey. She brings that same data-driven approach to DeFi Rate's news coverage.
Background
Valerie Cross is a reporter, editor and prediction markets analyst with more than a decade of experience covering legal gaming, regulated betting, and emerging wagering-adjacent markets. Before joining DeFi Rate in 2026, she reported on the emerging prediction markets landscape, with a focus on industry news, regulation, and real-world use cases. Previously, Valerie served as Editorial & Content Director at Prediction News and as Editor-in-Chief at Catena Media, where she led large-scale content and newsroom operations across regulated gaming news verticals. She holds a BA from Furman University and MA and PhD degrees from Indiana University.
Valerie’s writing has appeared across leading gaming and prediction markets publications, with a focus on explanatory journalism and industry analysis. She has held senior editorial leadership roles at multiple industry publications. Her work focuses on clear, accurate reporting at the intersection of markets, regulation, and consumer impact.
When she’s not reporting or editing, Valerie can usually be found traveling, staying active, attending sporting events, and going down rabbit holes on finance, investing, and data-driven betting and trading tools. On occasion, she also moonlights at mid-stakes poker tournaments — purely for research purposes, of course.
Experience
Editorial & Content Director
Prediction News
Prediction News
1 year
Editor-in-Chief
Catena Media
Catena Media
4 years
Journalist
Catena Media
Catena Media
2 years
Recent Articles
Crypto
Mastercard signs 85 crypto companies to its payments network as banks lobby Congress to ban stablecoin yield and activity-based crypto rewards in the CLARITY Act, despite Mastercard already offering them.
March 11, 2026
Data
Kalshi ($2.86B) and Polymarket ($2.50B) had their best combined week on record as Polymarket surpassed $1B in sports for the first time. Tracking also now available for Polymarket US and Crypto.com.
March 9, 2026
Crypto
New U.S. guidance on tokenized securities adds to a growing regulatory push toward blockchain finance, with potential ripple effects for prediction markets.
March 5, 2026
Industry
Next fed chair prediction markets attracted $806.9 million in volume across Kalshi and Polymarket, with traders pricing Kevin Warsh at 93% odds just before the official nomination came through on March 4.
March 4, 2026