Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) wants to know why the agency policing prediction markets seems to keep siding with companies linked to President Donald Trump and his family.
"As prediction markets balloon in size, and Congress advances legislation that threatens to loosen the guardrails on cryptocurrency, the CFTC's reported capture by industry poses severe risks to American families and our economy,” Warren wrote.
Yet Warren says the agency tasked with watching them has been hollowed out with its workforce cut by about 25%, with enforcement actions falling from 58 in fiscal year 2024 to just 11 in the year since Trump took office.
Warren tied those cuts directly to the administration's financial entanglements.
"Taken together, these are concerning signs of a CFTC beholden to political pressures and interests of the wealthy insiders, unbound by the rule of law and failing to protect investors and market integrity," Warren wrote.
Two-tier system"The biggest issue here isn't whether CFTC is pro-crypto or anti-crypto. It's the fact that its impartiality is being called into question, and a regulatory agency that isn't impartial can't be trusted to make decisions for the greater good of everyone," Nic Puckrin, macro analyst and co-founder of Coin Bureau, told Decrypt.
"It creates the impression of a two-tier justice system, and makes people lose faith in its ability to effectively create justice for all," he said.
"Regulating digital asset companies with a team that thinks within the TradFi frameworks will produce bad rules regardless of how many people are in the building," Markus Levin, co-founder of XYO, told Decrypt.
"If the CFTC is going to take on expanded authority under the Clarity Act, it needs people who actually understand blockchain technology, not just the traditional derivatives playbook,” he said.
Warren has asked Selig to respond by June 18, including a complete record of staff separations since January 2025, the administrative record behind no-action letters issued to Polymarket and Gemini, and all communications between prediction market firms and the agency tied to the Clarity Act.
