Meet the Trump Official Who’s Trying to Protect Prediction Markets
Mike Selig wants to help Trump shield prediction markets from state regulators. So do his former colleagues and one of his old clients.
Mike Selig, one of Donald Trump’s top financial regulators, is leading the charge to shield prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket from state regulation. Coincidentally, he previously worked at a law firm that represents Polymarket – and he also represented a venture capital firm that led Kalshi’s funding round last summer.
Selig, who chairs the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), was nominated in October of last year by Trump, and confirmed by the Senate in December. Due to a confluence of resignations from other members, Selig is also currently the sole person on the five-person board – meaning he is simply running the show.
And in that capacity, Selig is now publicly fighting to protect prediction markets from being shut down by state regulators – and he’s doing so alongside his old colleagues and one of his former clients, Zeteo can report. The revelations only add to the cacophony of corruption surrounding the Trump administration, the first family, and prediction markets. These markets allow people to bet on virtually everything while holding themselves out as something other than massive gambling operations.
Highlights include Donald Trump Jr.’s advisory roles with Kalshi and Polymarket, and the president’s social media business, Truth Social, partnering with Crypto.com to embed prediction markets into its platform, as part of a new product called “Truth Predict.” Crypto.com’s parent company also donated $30 million to the president’s super PAC last year.