CFTC Chair Selig unveils innovation committee as agency weighs crypto, prediction markets

As one of his first moves as chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Michael Selig debuted an innovation committee as the agency seeks to define its approach to prediction markets and digital assets. 

In a statement on Monday, Selig announced the renaming of the agency’s Technology Advisory Committee to the Innovation Advisory Committee and said he plans to nominate the CEO Innovation Council as the panel’s charter members. The council was created by former CFTC Acting Chair Caroline Pham and includes key players such as Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan, Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour, Gemini CEO Tyler Winklevoss, Nasdaq Chair and CEO Adena Friedman, among others.

“Innovators are harnessing technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and cloud computing to modernize legacy financial systems and build entirely new ones,” Selig said in the statement. “Under my leadership, the Commission will develop fit-for-purpose market structure regulations for this new frontier of finance.”

Selig takes the helm at a pivotal moment for the CFTC, with Congress actively debating legislation that would broaden the agency’s authority over the digital asset industry.  The agency has already moved to assert its role in crypto markets, including allowing the first exchange to list regulator-approved spot crypto products late last year. 

Prediction market concerns

The agency is also expected to address prediction markets, which have recently drawn scrutiny following reports of insider trading concerns and sparked legislation aimed at restricting politically related wagers. 

Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres introduced a bill last week to block elected officials and others from waging politically related bets on prediction markets following reports that a Polymarket account wagered that former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro would be “out”  by the end of this month, netting $400,000. 

Former CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam had warned of risks in prediction markets when it comes to waging bets on elections and said that election contracts should be done at the state level, not put the CFTC in charge of overseeing them.

Meanwhile, under the Trump administration, the agency has granted several firms the go-ahead to enter the prediction markets arena, including Gemini Titan, Polymarket US, MIAX Derivatives Exchange, LLC and more recently Bitnomial. 

The CFTC said Selig is also seeking nominations for more members of the new Innovation Advisory Committee and said submissions are due Jan. 31. The committee will be tasked with sending recommendations to the commission, specifically “by providing advice on the impact and implications of technological innovation in the financial services, derivatives, and commodity markets,” according to the statement.

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