In October 2025, the administration appointed Michael Selig as CFTC Chairman, who is currently under the direction of Acting CFTC Chair Caroline Pham. Selig currently serves as legal counsel to the SEC’s Crypto Task Force and previously worked in private practice, where his client list included a number of crypto companies. Selig also served as counsel to former CFTC Chairman Christopher Giancarlo. After hearing, the Senate Agriculture Committee advanced Selig’s nomination, putting his nomination on a path to Senate confirmation in the coming weeks. This memo outlines what could await the CFTC under Chairman Selig’s leadership.
Agency Leadership and Staffing
Like Acting Chairman Pham, Selig will likely be the sole commissioner in an agency expected to consist of five commissioners, two of whom must be from the minority party. The administration has given no indication whether it intends to fill the four remaining vacancies, much less whether Democrats will fill any of those positions. Unlike the SEC, the CFTC’s governing statute, the Commodity Exchange Act, does not define the minimum quorum required for agency action, and therefore the CFTC is able to undertake agency actions with a single commissioner, as it has done under Acting Chairman Pham. That said, Senate Democrats have raised concerns about the lack of Democratic commissioners during the negotiation of the Senate’s Crypto Market Structure bill, which would give jurisdiction over crypto spot markets to the CFTC.
Typical of any change in the administration, there will likely be a transition in the leadership of the division from the current acting directors to the permanent directors selected by President Selig. With the CFTC’s anticipated expanded jurisdictional mandate over crypto and a wide range of rules needed if crypto market structure legislation were passed, it would not be surprising if leadership roles within operating divisions were filled by individuals outside the CFTC’s career ranks in favor of those with crypto experience. For more than a decade, the role of chief law enforcement officer has gone to former federal prosecutors, which may continue given Selig’s comments during his nomination hearing that the CFTC will serve as the “cop on the ground.”
The CFTC is a much smaller agency with a budget consisting solely of funds appropriated by Congress, unlike the SEC, which is funded by industry fees in addition to appropriated funds. Under the current administration, the CFTC’s staff has been significantly reduced due to staff departures, particularly among divisional leaders. Although the crypto market structure legislation proposes collecting fees from new categories of filers to fund the CFTC’s crypto oversight, Selig was notably evasive during his nomination hearing about whether he would accept this additional funding, and as a result, it is unclear whether the CFTC would replenish its staff to its previous numbers.
Prediction Markets
Selig’s position on prediction markets was also evasive during his nomination hearing. Due to a change with this administration’s adoption of prediction markets, the rise of prediction markets in the United States has grown significantly. Unlike the approach taken by the Biden administration, the CFTC has since authorized CFTC-regulated designated contract markets to use the CFTC’s self-certification process to list sports-related event contracts as financial derivatives. However, this has given rise to a stream of litigation in state and federal courts across the country, brought by state gambling regulators and tribal regulatory bodies that traditionally oversee sports betting markets in their respective jurisdictions. Although several senators pressed during his hearing whether these markets were considered gambling, Selig said that was a question for the courts to decide and that the CFTC would abide by those court rulings. While the case progresses to the Supreme Court, the CFTC will likely continue, in the meantime, to allow self-certification of these sports contracts, thereby continuing the rapid proliferation and growth of these predictions markets in the United States.
Cryptocurrency
In contrast, Selig’s views on crypto are clear and crypto will likely dominate Selig’s agenda given his current role as chief counsel to the SEC’s Crypto Task Force and having served as a law clerk to former CFTC Chairman Giancarlo (aka “Crypto Dad”). Selig will no doubt work closely with Congress to get crypto market structure legislation across the finish line, then turn to the rulemaking process. Current crypto market structure legislation creates new registration regimes for digital commodity exchanges, digital commodity brokers, and digital commodity dealers to submit applications and listing standards to the CFTC, which will require numerous rules to implement. Selig’s comments during his hearing indicated he would seek to streamline the registration process to make it more efficient, which could dovetail well with SEC Chairman Atkins’ proposed “Reg Super App” allowing both securities and non-securities offering entities to trade under a single license. While the SEC and CFTC have jointly announced harmonization efforts, it is almost certain that Selig will advance these efforts and work closely with the SEC.
While in private practice, Selig submitted an editorial on crypto regulation in the United States. While his comments focused on the SEC’s approach to crypto regulation, it would not be surprising if he applied those same themes to the CFTC’s oversight of crypto. He reasoned that while crypto legislation is necessary to establish a legal framework for crypto in the United States, the SEC could adopt an “innovation-friendly regulatory framework that adapts to new markets” and that the SEC could use its existing exemption authority and propose changes to the current rules.
Many of these comments are consistent with the Presidential Digital Assets Task Force report, which recommended that the CFTC and SEC use their existing interpretive and exemptive authority to provide regulatory guidance. As such, it is likely that Selig will continue to advance the CFTC’s Crypto Sprint initiative and may very well follow the timeline set by Acting Chairman Pham in her recent remarks, in which she set out a timeline for rulemaking to be completed by August 2026 for technical amendments to the CFTC’s collateralization, margining, clearing, settlement, reporting, and recordkeeping regulations to enable the use of blockchain technology and market infrastructure, including tokenization. She had also said that guidance would be published by the end of the year on tokenized collateral (including stablecoins) in derivatives markets, which guidance was published on December 8.
Application
Selig’s comments during his hearing that he wants the CFTC to be the “cop on the ground” when it comes to fraud and manipulation belie his frustration stemming from his experience in private practice defending a financial entity in enforcement proceedings. Acting Chair Pham, who has not been shy about voicing her criticism of the CFTC’s Enforcement Division, has issued a number of notices reforming enforcement processes and procedures, including the Well process, self-reporting and cooperation, DOJ criminal referrals and materiality. These notices appear well-positioned to remain in place during Selig’s tenure with an enforcement division focused on customer harm, fraud and manipulation. With his pro-crypto stance, it seems almost certain that Selig will not undertake “regulation by enforcement” where the Division has filed lawsuits based on new interpretations of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations against crypto and DeFi companies.
Conclusion
Selig’s expected leadership of the CFTC comes at a critical time for the agency, as it is poised to oversee the crypto industry. With the CFTC’s increased jurisdictional mandate covering the crypto and prediction markets (at least until the Supreme Court resolves the issue), its actions and agenda are expected to shape the agency going forward.
Elizabeth Davis, who leads the commodities and derivatives trading practice at Davis Wright Tremaine, was previously a chief prosecutor at the CFTC. It offers insightful analysis of cryptocurrency market trends and prediction. For more information, contact Liz or another member of our financial services team or sign up for our alerts.
