White House to host crypto, prediction market executives ahead of CFTC advisory launch

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White House crypto, CFTC meeting

Highlights

The White House will host crypto and prediction market executives on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. ET, with Trump and CFTC Chair Michael Selig expected to attend.
The CFTC's Innovation Advisory Committee launches Thursday, featuring sessions on crypto asset regulation, artificial intelligence, and prediction markets, with 35 members including Ripple, Polymarket, Kalshi, and major exchanges.
Amid unresolved Senate action on the Clarity Act, CFTC asserts exclusive jurisdiction over event contracts as Baltimore and Washington state take legal action against Kalshi and Polymarket this week.

Wednesday meeting and committee agenda

As first reported by The Block, citing Politico and Bloomberg, the White House plans to host executives from the crypto and prediction market sectors on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. ET at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Bloomberg later reports that Trump is expected to attend, while one person familiar with the plans says CFTC Chair Michael Selig is also expected to be there.

The gathering is intended as a kickoff to the CFTC's Innovation Advisory Committee, which holds its inaugural meeting in Washington on Thursday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET and is available for public online viewing through a Federal Register notice. Selig has released an agenda with three sessions covering crypto asset regulation, artificial intelligence and prediction markets.

Selig named the committee's 35 members in February. They include Polymarket's Shayne Coplan, Kalshi's Tarek Mansour and Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, along with executives from Cboe, CME, DTCC and Nasdaq.

Policy stakes for crypto and prediction markets

The meeting comes as the crypto-focused Clarity Act remains stalled in the Senate. Senate Majority Leader John Thune filed cloture on the motion to proceed a week ago, setting a vote for 2:15 p.m. ET on Sept. 15, the day after the Senate returns from recess; invoking cloture requires 60 votes and does not itself pass the bill.

Prediction market oversight is also unresolved. The committee agenda says participants will discuss the respective roles of federal and state authorities in overseeing prediction markets, as well as recent state litigation and enforcement actions.

Selig argues that the CFTC holds exclusive jurisdiction over event contracts and has sued several states over efforts to restrict Kalshi and Polymarket. Both platforms face new pressure this week, with Baltimore suing the companies on Thursday over sports-related contracts and a Washington state court ordering Kalshi the same day to halt most of its offerings there.

Trump has already backed Selig's position in the dispute. In May, he called exclusive CFTC jurisdiction over prediction markets critically important in a Truth Social post, while Donald Trump Jr. serves as a strategic adviser to Kalshi and Polymarket and has invested in Polymarket through venture capital firm 1789 Capital.

Our earlier coverage of the CFTC’s review of “mention markets” explained how regulators are scrutinizing prediction contracts that let traders bet on whether specific words will appear in speeches or earnings calls, citing manipulation and compliance concerns. We noted that Kalshi pulled certain sports-related mention products amid the inquiry, while the broader probe was unfolding alongside plans for the CFTC’s Innovation Advisory Committee to address prediction markets, AI, and cryptocurrency.

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