Meanwhile, the CFTC has been asserting federal jurisdiction over prediction markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket, treating event contracts as futures rather than gambling products. Chair Selig has warned that state-level enforcement actions risk fragmenting the national market system. The agency has sued several states in response to their attempts to apply local gaming laws to CFTC-registered exchanges.
A federal judge in Utah recently ruled that the state can apply its gambling laws to Kalshi, while New York officials have reportedly issued subpoenas demanding details of sports-related transactions.
The Innovation Advisory Committee, renewed for two years under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, comprises 35 members including executives from Coinbase, Ripple, CME Group, Intercontinental Exchange, and other derivatives-market infrastructure firms. Its inaugural agenda covers three sessions: crypto asset regulation, artificial intelligence in trading and compliance, and prediction markets.
The crypto session is titled "Crypto's Regulatory Evolution: From Uncertainty to Clarity" and will examine the absence of a comprehensive federal framework, overlapping jurisdictions, and how existing statutory authority could be used while Congress works on legislation.
The sequencing of events — the SEC canceling its August 14 open meeting on a proposed "Regulation Crypto" regime, the White House convening industry leaders, and the CFTC holding its first formal advisory session on digital assets — suggests a coordinated executive-branch push on oversight. The advisory committee does not make rules, but its recommendations could shape how the CFTC approaches event-contract rulemaking and coordination with future legislation.