On January 29, 2026, CFTC Chairman Michael Selig revealed that the commission will draft new rules for the prediction markets industry.Earlier proposals to restrict...
CFTC Chair speaks out in support of prediction markets
Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chair Michael Selig spoke out in support of prediction markets in the Wall Street Journal.
The commentary was published on February 16, 2026, in which Selig defended the CFTC’s position to supervise prediction markets and added that the commission has decided to assist Crypto.com in a federal appeals court dispute over who controls the space.
Selig wrote:
“The CFTC will no longer sit idly by while overzealous state governments undermine the agency’s exclusive jurisdiction over these markets by seeking to establish statewide prohibitions on these exciting products.”
The Chair added that many CFTC-registered platforms have been pulled into state-driven lawsuits, including Kalshi, Polymarket, Coinbase, and Crypto.com, and called these efforts encroachments on the agency’s exclusive authority under federal law. Over 50 active cases in the U.S. are arguing that event contracts should be classified as gambling and fall under state gaming laws.
Selig described prediction markets as platforms that serve legitimate economic functions and stated that businesses and individuals use them to get information about anticipated developments and manage portfolio exposure. He rejected the characterization that event contracts are unregistered platforms, stressing that they work as self-regulatory organizations subject to examination and supervision by CFTC staff.
On January 20, 2026, the CFTC’s chairman, Michael Selig, announced that the regulator will “future-proof” itself to better navigate new financial technologies like...
