\n<\/p>\n
Commodity Futures Trading Commission chairman Michael Selig wants America to be the hub for prediction markets<\/a>. He also wants the industry to know he is watching every trade.<\/p>\n In a sit-down interview with NYNext at CFTC headquarters in Washington this week, Selig, 36, laid out his vision. The regulator is intent on keeping prediction markets<\/a> \u2014 which allow users to bet on everything from election outcomes to Oscar winners to oil prices \u2014 safe for traders. He wants to balance innovation and enforcement in the new regulatory framework he is trying to codify<\/p>\n \u201dI want the United States to be the markets capital of the world,\u201d Selig said. \u201cWhether it\u2019s prediction markets, crypto, traditional markets \u2014 if we don\u2019t take leadership there, we\u2019re going to see these markets flourish offshore.\u201d<\/p>\n Ironically, Selig, who was sworn in on Dec. 22, 2025, expected to spend his tenure wrestling with digital assets<\/a> \u2014 e<\/a> to regulate Bitcoin and Ethereum spot markets or overseeing DeFi developers. Instead he has been inundated with something nobody saw coming at scale: prediction markets, and what Washington\u2019s role in regulating them should be.<\/p>\n