The US Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee (CFTC) has employed a brand new chief information innovation officer with deep expertise in blockchain forensics in what may very well be seen because the regulator’s transfer towards better give attention to the expertise.
In a Monday discover, CFTC Chair Michael Selig stated that Donald Battle, an adviser to the US Securities and Change Fee (SEC) crypto job drive, could be the fee’s chief information innovation officer. Battle was appointed as an SEC crypto job drive adviser in January 2025 with the incoming Trump administration, and beforehand labored as a blockchain information adviser for the CFTC and crypto enforcement specialist with the Treasury Division’s Monetary Crimes Enforcement Community.
Supply: CFTC
Selig cited Battle’s expertise in “information science, blockchain forensics, programming interfaces, and cutting-edge AI options” amongst his causes for his decide.
The appointment signaled the company shifting nearer to addressing crypto regulation and enforcement at a time when Congress is searching for to overtake the CFTC’s and SEC’s roles with a digital asset market construction invoice, the CLARITY Act.
The CFTC chair stays the only commissioner on the monetary company chargeable for many facets of digital asset regulation and enforcement. Beneath Selig, the CFTC has claimed exclusion jurisdiction over regulating prediction market platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket, leading to many lawsuits in opposition to state-level authorities searching for to crack down on what they referred to as unlawful playing.
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The CFTC final week launched a proposed rule that might distinguish sports activities occasion contracts provided on platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket from what it referred to as “video games of random likelihood,” referring to playing. The general public has 45 days to touch upon the draft rule that might affect how the monetary company addresses regulation of sports activities occasions contracts and betting on the state and federal ranges.
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