CFTC names 35 members including Kalshi, Polymarket, and DraftKings CEOs to Innovation Advisory Panel
Federal derivatives regulators have filled out the membership of a new advisory group designed to keep pace with fast-moving changes across financial markets.
On Thursday (February 12), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) released the complete list of 35 people who will sit on its newly created Innovation Advisory Committee. The panel pulls in executives and experts from across traditional finance and the digital-asset world, reflecting how closely those sectors now intersect.
The agency said the committee is meant to help it adjust its rulebook as technology reshapes trading and market structure. Chairman Michael S. Selig, who backed the formation of the group, said the advisers will play a key role in making sure the commission’s policies “reflect market realities” while it works to “future-proof its markets and develop clear rules of the road for the Golden Age of American Financial Markets.”
Selig also selected Michael Passalacqua to serve as the committee’s designated federal officer. The move comes as the chairman announced an overhaul to the rules for prediction markets, withdrawing the 2024 “rule proposal” that would have put a stop to political and sports contracts.
CFTC brings together a broad mix of prediction market heavyweights in its innovation advisory committee
The roster reads like a cross-section of the current prediction marketplace. Among those tapped are Hayden Adams of Uniswap Labs, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, who happen to be three prominent names in crypto.
Leaders of major exchanges and long-established market operators are also joining. Terry Duffy of CME Group, Nasdaq’s Adena Friedman, Craig Donohue of Cboe Global Markets and Intercontinental Exchange CEO Jeff Sprecher are all set to participate.
The commission also drew from newer trading venues and digital-asset platforms. Shayne Coplan of Polymarket, Tarek Mansour of Kalshi, Kris Marszalek of Crypto.com, Arjun Sethi of Kraken, Gemini’s Tyler Winklevoss and Solana Labs CEO Anatoly Yakovenko are listed as members.
Beyond chief executives, the committee includes voices from venture capital, academia and industry associations. Chris Dixon of a16z crypto and Alana Palmedo of Paradigm will take part, along with Professor Harry Crane and Professor Carla Reyes. Representatives tied to core market plumbing, including Frank LaSalla of the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation, Walt Lukken of FIA and Scott D. O’Malia of ISDA, were also named.
According to the CFTC, the committee will advise the agency on developments in derivatives and commodity markets, particularly as new tools alter how trading, clearing and risk management operate. The commission said it wants insight into how advances such as artificial intelligence and blockchain are influencing market behavior and what that could mean for oversight.
“America is home to the most transparent and well-regulated financial markets in the world, but we cannot assume that this will always be the case,” Selig said in the announcement. “By bringing together participants from every corner of the marketplace, the IAC will be a major asset for the Commission as we work to modernize our rules and regulations for the innovations of today and tomorrow.”
The Innovation Advisory Committee takes the place of the agency’s former Technology Advisory Committee.
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