- US Senators confirmed Mike Selig to lead the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Thursday.
- Selig has served as chief counsel at the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Crypto Task Force since March.
- Crypto and prediction markets dominated Selig’s confirmation hearing in November.
US Senators on Thursday approved crypto ally Mike Selig to lead the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the regulator that could soon take a leading role overseeing the US crypto industry.
Selig will replace interim CFTC Chairwoman Caroline Pham. On Wednesday, crypto payments firm Moonpay said it had hired Pham as its chief legal officer.
A former partner at corporate law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher, Selig has served as chief counsel at the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Crypto Task Force since March. He is also an advisor to SEC Chair Paul Atkins, who has committed to a pro-crypto agenda in an effort to bring equities markets onchain.
“I pledge to work tirelessly to facilitate Well-Functioning Commodity Markets, promote Freedom, Competition and Innovation, and help the President make the United States the Crypto Capital of the World,” Selig said in October, when he was nominated by President Donald Trump to lead the agency.
His confirmation comes amid negotiations over a crypto market structure bill that could massively expand the CFTC’s remit.
Traditionally a regulator of agricultural product derivatives, such as wheat futures, the CFTC would become the primary regulator of crypto markets according to a draft bill released last month.
Crypto and prediction markets dominated Selig’s confirmation hearing in November.
The attorney said it was “critical” that the government pass substantial crypto laws.
“We have so many entrepreneurs and builders and developers that have been pushed offshore, and this is due to the lack of clarity,” he said.
And Selig hinted that he’d take a light-touch approach in regulating decentralised finance, or DeFi.
“We should be looking to onchain markets and onchain applications and thinking about the features of these applications, as well as whether there’s an actual intermediary involved, where we have some operator, administrator,” he said.
“In many cases, that may not be. And so we have to think about the best approach.”
But he dodged repeated questions from senators, most of them Democrats, over prediction markets and a staffing shortfall at the CFTC.
Asked time and again whether the agency has purview over prediction markets, Selig said he would defer to the courts.
His answers seemingly frustrated Democrats on the Senate Agriculture Committee as well as the American Gaming Association, which represents casino operators in the US. Those operators have been fighting tooth and nail to keep prediction markets out of their territories.
Prediction markets, in turn, have sued states that banned them or pushed them to acquire gambling licenses, arguing their product — event contracts — are distinct from wagering.
The lack of manpower at the CFTC proved another flashpoint during the November hearing.
The CFTC typically features four commissioners — two Democrats and two Republicans — and one chairperson who leads the agency and casts tiebreaking votes. But it has been led single-handedly on an interim basis by Pham since September 3.
Additionally, senators said they feared the agency would not have the staff it needed to handle a dramatic increase in its responsibilities should it gain oversight of crypto markets upon passage of pending market structure legislation.
Asked to commit to advocating for a full, five-member board, Selig said only that he valued having a “diversity of viewpoints.”
He also declined to say whether the agency needed more staff, saying he would not know until after he was confirmed.
Senators confirmed Selig 53-43 in a batch vote on Thursday that included dozens of other nominees.
Aleks Gilbert is DL News’ New York-based DeFi correspondent. You can reach him at aleks@dlnews.com.
