The confirmation hearing for Brian Quintenz, President Donald Trump’s nominee for chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), will be held on June 10.
As first reported by the Event Horizon newsletter, the hearing will take place at 3 p.m. EST before the United States Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.
Quintenz’s potential confirmation would fill a crucial spot on a CFTC with numerous current or impending vacancies and a busy docket in the months ahead. None of that business will have anything to do with food and trees.
The expansion of prediction markets — spearheaded by Kalshi — into sports event contracts that very much resemble sports betting will be an immediate priority. Kalshi and CEO Tarek Mansour have successfully fended off state cease-and-desist orders and continue to offer a menu of sports markets, claiming that they are overseen federally by the CFTC and therefore beyond state regulation.
Prediction markets keep pushing boundaries
Without a chairperson and to this point silent on the validity of Kalshi’s arguments, the CFTC has allowed prediction markets to continue selling sports event contracts nationally, including in the 11 states that have not legalized sports betting. The CFTC left a group of tribal gambling operators believing that it would not act to stem the expansion of prediction markets including Crypto.com and Robinhood.
Quintenz is currently a stockholder and a member of Kalshi’s board of directors, but has said he would divest and leave the board if confirmed.
The CFTC’s last attempt to stem Kalshi ended in defeat this fall when a federal court ruled Kalshi could continue posting markets on the U.S. Presidential election.
Kalshi’s trading volume is now largely driven by sports markets, which have evolved from “Yes/No” moneyline-like offerings into NFL team wins and prop-style choices. It still lags far behind licensed sportsbooks in revenue, however, according to InGame research.
The confirmation committee will vote after June 10 on whether to send Quintenz’s confirmation onto the Senate.
