CFTC officials who questioned prediction markets were suspended: NYT

A New York Times investigation found that senior CFTC officials who raised concerns about Polymarket, Crypto.com and Gemini were suspended and pushed out.

Senior officials at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission who raised concerns about prediction market companies were suspended, investigated and eventually pushed out of the agency.

According to a New York Times investigation published Sunday, the officials had flagged concerns about Polymarket, Crypto.com and a Gemini affiliate, each with alleged business ties to the Trump family. Career staff worried that Crypto.com was not treating small bettors fairly, that Polymarket lacked adequate fraud protections and that Gemini’s affiliate had not completed the required regulatory review to operate.

Despite those concerns, then-acting CFTC chair Caroline Pham and her senior counsel intervened to help the firms get what they wanted, sources told the NYT. By the end of 2025, two officials who had raised questions were placed on administrative leave and under internal investigation. Three others who had enforced crypto laws faced the same fate. None were told what they had done wrong.

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