The chief executives of Kalshi and Polymarket, along with senior figures from DraftKings, FanDuel, Robinhood, Crypto.com and Bitnomial, have been appointed to a new Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) advisory panel as the regulator continues its legal battle over prediction markets.
The CFTC’s Innovation Advisory Committee will hold its first meeting on Thursday, 20 August, from 13:00 to 16:00 Eastern Daylight Time. The meeting will take place in Washington, with members attending in person and the public able to join virtually through a livestream on the agency’s website.
Prediction markets, which allow users to trade contracts linked to future events, are among the issues on the agenda. The committee will also discuss crypto assets and artificial intelligence.
CFTC chairman Michael S. Selig, who sponsors the committee, published the agenda on 13 August.
“I look forward to meeting with the entrepreneurs, thinkers, and builders of the CFTC’s Innovation Advisory Committee to discuss ways emerging technologies and financial products are shaping our markets,” Selig said.
Michael Passalacqua is the committee’s designated federal officer.
The panel is effectively a renamed version of the Technology Advisory Committee. Selig established the Innovation Advisory Committee in January, saying he planned to appoint participants from the agency’s CEO Innovation Council as its initial members. The CFTC invited public nominations until 31 January before announcing the 35-member roster on 12 February.
Seven committee members lead companies directly involved in event contracts or in the sports-betting industry competing with prediction-market operators.
Tarek Mansour, the chief executive of Kalshi, and Shayne Coplan, the chief executive of Polymarket, are both members. The panel also includes Jason Robins of DraftKings, FanDuel president Christian Genetski, Robinhood chief executive Vlad Tenev, Crypto.com chief executive Kris Marszalek and Bitnomial chief executive Luke Hoersten.
The committee has an extensive crypto presence. Its members include Brian Armstrong of Coinbase, Hayden Adams of Uniswap Labs, Brad Garlinghouse of Ripple, Tyler Winklevoss of Gemini, Kraken co-chief executive Arjun Sethi, Anatoly Yakovenko of Solana Labs and Sergey Nazarov of Chainlink Labs.
Executives from CME Group, Nasdaq, Cboe, Intercontinental Exchange and the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation are also represented, alongside investors such as Chris Dixon of a16z crypto and Alana Palmedo of Paradigm.
The appointments come as the CFTC pursues legal action against nine US states over prediction markets. The commission has also submitted amicus briefs in the Sixth and Ninth Circuits and the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, arguing that it has jurisdiction over the products sold by some of the companies represented on the committee.
The industry’s members do not always share the same interests. Polymarket accused Kalshi of corporate espionage in June, while DraftKings and FanDuel have taken market-maker roles on prediction-market venues even as their sportsbook operations compete with those businesses.
The committee’s meeting follows a period of increased regulatory activity. On 12 August, the CFTC’s Division of Market Oversight issued an advisory covering self-certifications for market-maker, liquidity, trading and incentive programmes.
The division said there had been an increase in filings related to event-contract products that were procedurally or substantively deficient. Exchanges have been given until 14 September to amend programmes that have already been filed.
In June, the commission proposed a framework for deciding when event contracts are contrary to the public interest. The proposal included a definition of gaming.
The Innovation Advisory Committee has no power to make policy or take regulatory action. Its role is to advise the commission and provide insights and recommendations. However, its first meeting will put many of the sector’s most prominent figures on the record as the CFTC addresses difficult questions about the future of prediction markets.
