US President Donald Trump said it was “critically important” that the CFTC maintain “exclusive authority” over prediction markets, echoing CFTC Chairman Michael Selig in a post on Truth Social, his social media platform, on Tuesday afternoon.
“Under my leadership, we are establishing ‘rules of the road’ that are the gold standard for States,” he posted. “We can’t let SCUMs like Chris Christie, Letitia James, Tim Walz and JB Pritzker set the rules!”
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has repeatedly defended states’ authority to regulate gambling products, which he likened to prediction markets.
New York Attorney General Letitia James filed similar lawsuits alleging that some prediction markets are violating state gambling laws; Illinois, led by Governor JB Pritzker, sent a cease and desist; and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz last week signed a law that imposes criminal penalties on those who operate prediction markets.
The CFTC, led by Selig as the agency’s sole commissioner, has filed lawsuits and amicus briefs against several states, including those linked to officials named by Trump, defending its jurisdiction over prediction markets.
At the center of the legal dispute is the question of whether prediction market contracts linked to sports and entertainment are actually just gambling products disguised as a novel financial instrument. The CFTC has taken the position that all prediction market contracts offered by regulated designated contract markets (DCM) are under its jurisdiction and that states have no right to infringe it.
States, meanwhile, have taken the position that these contracts are actually gambling and should therefore be monitored by state gaming regulators or banned entirely in states that do not allow such products.
Court cases have reached the federal appeals court level and the issue is likely to come before the U.S. Supreme Court at some point.
Beyond the states
“Other countries are looking for this new form of financial market and we want to stay on top,” Trump’s post continued.
Several countries have recently banned prediction markets from operating within their borders, including Indonesia, Spain and India last week.
The US government is also investigating prediction markets, and a House committee investigation was confirmed last week.
Over the weekend, The New York Times reported that the CFTC, under former acting chair Caroline Pham, sidelined agency officials who raised concerns about approving cryptocurrencies and other companies (specifically with ties to Trump’s family businesses) that had requested DCM approvals.
Neither the CFTC nor a spokesperson for Moonpay, Pham’s current company, immediately responded to a request for comment on the article.
Trump’s family has ties to several prediction market providers, and Donald Trump Jr., one of the president’s sons, acts as an advisor to both Polymarket and Kalshi. Gemini, the cryptocurrency exchange launched by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, both public Trump supporters, also launched a prediction market platform and filed to self-certify parlay-type contracts late last week.
Trump also referred to his campaign promise to make the United States the “crypto capital” in his post on Wednesday.
“Similarly, and even more importantly, where we are currently the cryptocurrency capital of the world (Bitcoin, etc.), other countries are diligently trying to replace us in that capacity, but we will not allow that to happen,” he posted.
UPDATE (May 26, 2026, 21:56 UTC): Add links everywhere.
