# Michael Selig **Michael S. Selig** is the 16th Chairman of the [[CFTC]]. Trump nominated him on October 27, 2025, four weeks after the White House withdrew [[Brian Quintenz]]'s nomination. The Senate confirmed him on **December 18, 2025**, 53–43, in an en bloc package of 97 nominations, and he was sworn in on December 22. He is also the commission's **only member**. Acting Chair Caroline Pham left after he was sworn in, and the other seats are empty. As of October 2026 he was still acting alone, including on the agency's new crypto rules. A five-seat, bipartisan commission is being run by one person, whose agenda is to bring the crypto and prediction-market industries under the CFTC and keep the states out. ## Career - **Education:** BS, Florida State University; JD, George Washington University Law School (2015), where he was an articles editor of the law review. - **2014–15:** law clerk at the CFTC to then-Commissioner [[J. Christopher Giancarlo]], the "Crypto Dad" chairman, who has chaired [[Polymarket]]'s advisory board since 2022. - **2022–25:** partner at Willkie Farr & Gallagher in asset management and its "Willkie Digital Works" crypto practice. Wikipedia lists eToro and Paradigm among his clients; that rests on one source. - **March 2025:** chief counsel of the [[SEC]]'s Crypto Task Force and senior adviser to Chair [[Paul Atkins]]. ## The agenda - **"Future-Proof" (January 20, 2026).** He replaced the Technology Advisory Committee with an Innovation Advisory Committee. His talk of a "minimum effective dose of regulation" and a "Golden Age of American financial markets" is quoted from a single source (FIA). - **Clearing the Biden rule (February 4, 2026).** He withdrew the June 2024 proposed rule that would have barred political event contracts, calling it a "frolic into merit regulation." He also withdrew a September 2025 staff advisory on sports contracts. - **The first event-contract rule (June 2026).** The proposal defines "gaming," sets a multi-factor public-interest test with 90-day contract reviews, and says contracts on game scores and outcomes are likely *not* contrary to the public interest. No final rule had issued by September. - **Crypto.** On May 29, 2026 he approved the first U.S.-listed bitcoin perpetual contract (on Kalshi's exchange) and issued guidance on 24/7 trading. On October 5 he proposed new rules for a "crypto asset market" category; the agency still has no authority over spot trading. That authority was in the [[CLARITY Act]], which failed cloture in the Senate 49–50 on September 15, 2026. ## Suing the states State-by-state dockets and rulings: [[CFTC v. Arizona]]. Under Selig the CFTC has argued the industry's case in court itself. It sued Illinois, Arizona and Connecticut on April 2, 2026 and New York on April 24, saying it "will not allow overzealous state governments to undermine the agency's longstanding authority over these markets." By late June the agency had filed **nine** suits. RotoWire's tracker lists the other five as New Mexico, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Wisconsin and Kentucky. The results so far: - **Arizona:** a temporary restraining order (April 10) blocked the state's criminal case against [[Kalshi]]. - **New York:** after the attorney general sued Kalshi on July 31, the CFTC used emergency authority (August 11) to order Kalshi to keep operating there. - **Illinois:** on October 2 Judge Martha Pacold granted a partial preliminary injunction, finding the sports contracts are likely "swaps." - **The appeals courts are split.** The Third Circuit sided with Kalshi; the Ninth (August 28) and Sixth (September 25) sided with the states. Certiorari petitions are pending; see [[KalshiEX v. Flaherty]]. A regulator suing states on behalf of the firms it oversees is this cluster's clearest example of [[Regulatory Capture]]. Two of those firms have ties to [[Donald Trump Jr.]]: he is a paid adviser to Kalshi and sits on Polymarket's advisory board. ## Scrutiny On June 26, 2026 Senators John Curtis and [[Adam Schiff]] wrote to Selig after a *Wall Street Journal* report on staged promotional bets on [[Polymarket]]. CNBC and the *Journal* reported a CFTC investigation, which the agency has not confirmed. ## See Also - [[CFTC]] · [[Prediction Markets]] · [[Prediction Markets and Gambling Sector]] · [[Sports Betting]] - [[KalshiEX v. Flaherty]] · [[Murphy v. NCAA]] · [[Federal Preemption]] - [[Kalshi]] · [[Polymarket]] · [[Crypto.com]] · [[Robinhood]] · [[Coalition for Prediction Markets]] - [[Brian Quintenz]] · [[J. Christopher Giancarlo]] · [[Paul Atkins]] - [[Capital Markets]] · [[Financial System Hub]] · [[Crypto-Political Machine]]