US Senate confirms Mike Selig to run the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Travis Hill to lead the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
The Senate finally confirmed Mike Selig as CFTC Chair and announced Travis Hill will lead the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
The Senate’s move came roughly a week after a Thursday vote, 53-43, that approved the resolution to set up a final vote that would confirm both Selig to the CFTC and Travis Hill to chair the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). According to CoinDesk, Senate Republicans have used an unusual approach of grouping dozens of President Trump’s nominees at a time, rather than approving each individually. Hill and Selig’s approvals are also tied with 95 other confirmation questions.
Selig is Mr. Trump’s second nominee for the CFTC chair. He initially nominated Brian Quintenz, the former CFTC commissioner who worked with venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz. However, the White House pulled Quintenz’s nomination following a public outcry by crypto billionaires Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss over Quintez’s ties to prediction market Kalshi. Quintez has a seat on the Kalshi board, and there were conflict-of-interest concerns over his ability to run the CFTC impartially.
Selig worked alongside CryptoDad author and former CFTC chair Chris Giancarlo. And like Giancarlo, Selig is a vocal crypto supporter and will likely spend his time as CFTC head by fulfilling Mr. Trump’s desire of turning America into the “crypto capital of the world.”
“Yes, I think the crypto community is excited about Mike. But so is the whole CFTC community,” Giancarlo said on a recent podcast, per The Intercept. “It’s not, ‘Crypto bro goes to CFTC.’ [Selig] is somebody who has had a decade-long practice in all aspects of CFTC law and jurisdiction, and is accomplished in all those areas.”
Those in the prediction markets are also excited for Selig: he will likely continue to maintain the CFTC’s hands-off approach to prediction markets. When asked how the CFTC would regulate companies offering event contracts that allow customers to wager on sports via prediction markets, Selig said it was a “complicated Issue” that is “working its way through the courts, and so I will respect the decisions of those courts.” (h/t Politico)
Selig’s perspective means that CFTC won’t intervene as prediction markets grow and allow sports contracts to be self-centered. As prediction markets have expanded into the sports world, state gaming regulators and tribal authorities have filed lawsuits, arguing that these exchanges are gambling operations rather than financial derivatives.
Selig seems fine leaving the courts to determine what is what, and not using the commission’s power to step in.
Senators also pressed Selig about advising Mr. Trump on nominating Democrats to the CFTC. Since the start of the year, the commission’s other members left the board, leaving behind only acting chair Caroline Pham. The CFTC usually splits 3-2 along party lines, with the majority going towards whichever party is in the White House.
“My job, if confirmed as chairman, is to fulfill the agency’s mission,” Selig told Democrats, “and I believe that mission is best fulfilled when we have a diversity of viewpoints coming from wherever we can find those viewpoints.”
Until then, he will likely be the sole regulator overseeing the prediction markets.
