The Likely Road Ahead for the CFTC Under Chair Selig

In October 2025, the Administration nominated Michael Selig to serve as Chairman of the CFTC, which currently is under the leadership of CFTC Acting Chairman Caroline Pham. Selig currently serves as chief counsel to the SEC's Crypto Task Force and previously worked in private practice, where his client roster included a number of crypto firms. Selig also was a law clerk for former CFTC Chairman Christopher Giancarlo. After hearing, the Senate Agriculture Committee advanced Selig's nomination, putting his nomination en route to confirmation by the Senate in the coming weeks. This note describes what may lie ahead for the CFTC under Chair Selig's leadership.

Agency Leadership and Staffing

As with Acting Chairman Pham, Selig will likely be the sole commissioner of an agency that is supposed to be comprised of five commissioners, two of whom are required to belong to the minority party. The Administration has not given any indication whether it intends to fill the four remaining vacancies, much less whether Democrats would fill any of those positions. Unlike the SEC, the CFTC's governing statute, the Commodity Exchange Act, does not define what minimum quorum is required for agency action, and therefore, the CFTC is able to undertake agency actions with a single commissioner as it has been doing under Acting Chairman Pham. That said, Senate Democrats have raised concerns about the lack of Democrat commissioners while negotiating the Senate's crypto market structure bill, which would give jurisdiction over spot crypto markets to the CFTC.

Typical of any change in administration, there will likely be a transition in division leadership from the current acting directors to permanent directors selected by Chair Selig. With the CFTC's anticipated expanded jurisdictional mandate over crypto and a wide swath of rulemaking needed should crypto market structure legislation be enacted, it would not be surprising if the leadership roles over the operational divisions would be filled by individuals outside the career ranks of the CFTC in favor of those with crypto experience. For more than the last decade, the enforcement director role has been staffed by former federal prosecutors, which could continue given Selig's comments during his nomination hearing that the CFTC will serve as the "cop on the beat."

The CFTC is a much smaller agency with a budget comprised solely of funds appropriated from Congress, as compared to the SEC, which is funded via industry fees in addition to appropriated funds. Under the current Administration, CFTC staff has been significantly reduced due to staff departures, including those in the division leadership ranks. Although crypto market structure legislation proposes collecting fees from new categories of registrants to fund the CFTC's crypto oversight, Selig was notably noncommittal during his nomination hearing whether he would accept this additional funding, and therefore, it is unclear whether the CFTC would rebuild its staff back up to its earlier numbers.

Prediction Markets

Selig's stance on prediction markets was similarly noncommittal during his nomination hearing. Due to a shift with this Administration embracing prediction markets, the rise of prediction markets in the United States has expanded dramatically. Contrary to the approach taken by the Biden Administration, the CFTC has since permitted 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 resulted in a stream of litigation in state and federal courts across the country brought by state gaming regulators and Tribal regulatory bodies who have traditionally overseen sports betting markets in their respective jurisdictions. Although pressed by several Senators during his hearing as to whether these markets are considered gaming, Selig stated that this was a question for the courts to decide and that the CFTC would comply with those judicial decisions. As the issue works its way to the Supreme Court, the CFTC in the interim presumably will continue to allow these sports contracts to be self-certified, thereby continuing the rapid proliferation and growth of these prediction markets in the United States.

Crypto

By contrast, Selig's views on crypto are crystal 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 Chair Giancarlo (aka "Crypto Dad"). Selig will undoubtedly work closely with Congress in getting crypto market structure legislation over the finish line and then turn to the rulemaking process. The 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 extensive rulemakings to implement. Selig's comments during his hearing indicated that he would seek to streamline the registration process to make it more efficient, which may dovetail well with SEC Chair Atkins' proposed "Reg Super App," allowing entities offering securities and non-securities to trade under a single license. As the SEC and CFTC jointly announced harmonization efforts, it is near certain that Selig will readily advance those efforts and work closely with the SEC.

While in private practice, Selig had submitted an editorial on crypto regulation in the United States. Although his comments were focused on the SEC's approach to crypto regulation, it would not be surprising if he applies those same themes to the CFTC's oversight over crypto. He opined that while crypto legislation is needed to establish a legal framework for crypto in the United States, the SEC could take a "pro-innovation regulatory framework that scales to accommodate novel markets," and for the SEC to utilize its existing exemptive authority and propose amendments to current rules.

Many of these comments are in line with the Presidential Working Group Report on Digital Assets, which recommended that the CFTC and SEC utilize their current interpretative 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 out by Acting Chairman Pham in her recent remarks, where she outlined a timeframe for rulemaking to be completed by August 2026 for technical amendments to the CFTC's regulations for collateral, margin, clearing, settlement, reporting, and recordkeeping to enable the use of blockchain technology and market infrastructure including tokenization. She had also stated that guidance would be released by the end of the year on tokenized collateral (including stablecoins) in the derivatives markets, which guidance was released on December 8.

Enforcement

Selig's comments during his hearing that he wants the CFTC to be the "cop on the beat" when it comes to fraud and manipulation, belies his frustration from his time in private practice in defending a financial entity in connection with an enforcement proceeding. Acting Chairman Pham, who was not shy about voicing her criticisms of the CFTC's Division of Enforcement, issued a number of advisories reforming enforcement processes and procedures, including the Wells process, self-reporting and cooperation, criminal referrals to DOJ, and materiality. These advisories seem well-poised 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 appears near certain that Selig will not be undertaking "regulation by enforcement" where the Division pursued claims based on novel interpretations of the Commodity Exchange Act and the CFTC's Regulations against crypto and DeFi firms.

Conclusion

Selig's expected leadership over the CFTC comes at a critical juncture for the agency as it is poised to gain oversight over the crypto industry. With the CFTC's increased jurisdictional mandate covering crypto and prediction markets (at least until the Supreme Court resolves the issue), his actions and agenda should shape the agency well into the future.

Elizabeth Davis, who leads the commodities and derivatives business practice at Davis Wright Tremaine, previously served as Chief Trial Attorney at the CFTC. She offers insightful analysis of trends in cryptocurrency and prediction markets. For more insights, reach out to Liz or another member of our financial services team or sign up for our alerts.