Crypto and prediction market firms tied to Donald Trump's family gained ground at a key U.S. regulator as career officials who questioned them were sidelined, according to a New York Times investigation.
The newspaper said it reviewed agency records and interviewed more than 30 current and former staff members and company officials for a report on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the U.S. regulator that oversees derivatives and prediction markets.
The investigation focused on three companies with links to Trump family business interests:
- Crypto.com had a prediction market business and a partnership with Trump Media & Technology Group, a company in which Trump is the largest shareholder.
- Polymarket received funding from 1789 Capital, an investment firm partly owned by Donald Trump Jr., and later named him an unpaid adviser.
- Crypto exchange Gemini's founders, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, backed businesses connected to Trump family members.
The New York Times reported that senior career officials raised concerns about Crypto.com, Polymarket and a Gemini offshoot seeking prediction market approval. Caroline Pham, then acting CFTC chair, and Brigitte Weyls, her senior counsel, intervened to help the firms, according to people familiar with the matter.
By Christmas, the agency had reportedly put two officials who questioned the companies on leave, barred them from the office and placed them under internal investigation, the report reads. Three other senior officials involved in crypto enforcement also faced similar treatment.
The agency also sharply pulled back from crypto enforcement as the CFTC has announced only two crypto-related cases during Trump's second term, compared with more than 80 under the Biden administration.
Michael Selig, the CFTC chair and sole commissioner, rejected claims of favoritism, saying in commentary for The New York Times that "If you're committing fraud, manipulation, abuse, insider trading in our markets, whether it's in crypto or anything else, our enforcement division is watching and will be a cop on the beat."