How the Trump admin gutted the CFTC, ousting enforcers and appointing industry-friendly officials, as Trump family got into crypto and prediction markets
Last fall, a high-stakes struggle unfolded inside the red brick walls of an obscure federal agency.
New York Times
Context & Ripple Effects
Related coverage had already documented disorder and cutbacks at the CFTC as it prepared for expanded crypto responsibilities, alongside an industry campaign to reshape financial regulation after Trump’s return.
This account connects those institutional changes to a broader shift: the SEC was reported to have eased or dropped many crypto matters, while Wall Street and crypto firms moved toward a more accommodating U.S. policy environment.
First-order effects
Removing CFTC enforcement officials and weakening agency operations reduces the regulator’s near-term capacity to investigate and pursue cases in markets under its remit.
Industry-friendly leadership changes the CFTC’s decision-making center while Trump-family participation in crypto and prediction markets raises heightened scrutiny of the agency’s independence.
Second-order effects
Crypto and prediction-market businesses face a regulatory environment in which the two principal federal market regulators, as described in related coverage, may be less aggressive—altering firms’ compliance and product-launch calculations.
The CFTC’s operational disruption becomes more consequential if it is expected to absorb additional crypto duties, potentially shifting practical influence toward regulated firms and their legal and lobbying strategies.
Third-order effects
If weakened enforcement and industry-aligned appointments persist across agencies, U.S. crypto oversight could move from enforcement-led constraint toward rulemaking and negotiated accommodation, with outcomes depending on whether agency capacity is rebuilt.
The overlap between policymaking and business participation by politically connected actors may make regulator independence and conflict-management safeguards a more central test of market-policy legitimacy.
The trend: This is one data point in the post-return reorientation of U.S. crypto policy from adversarial enforcement toward a more industry-accessible regulatory posture.
“In the past 16 months of the Trump administration, the commission has shrunk [the CFTC's] work force, purged career officials, sharply curtailed crypto enforcement and helped out prediction markets at virtually every turn.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
@jason_kint @GayleOldSmith Kushner financial giant Public Investment Fund crypto scandal with Son Mayasshoi and UAE MBS is cooked. Did he trick @EricTrump into it by appealing to his charity robbing greedy heart? [image]
I've brought attention to other articles talking about how Trump has gutted the SEC and forced them to kowtow to his demands or else and now the same thing has happened with the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission). The sole commissioner, as Trump purposefully left all
does nobody have the political will and integrity to connect all of these dots and impeach him for how much he and his family have enriched themselves, and their allies, through federal power
NYT out with a jaw dropping investigative report on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. 60 Minutes reported last Sunday on some of this, too. The NYT report is a must-read, the 60 Minutes report should then be watched. 1/3 [image]
OH, MAN. Dems REALLY need to detail THIS throughout the summer and fall in their campaigns for Senate, House, governor and state legislature. — cc: @ossoff.bsky.social — www.nytimes.com/2026/05/24/u... [images]
The word isn't “steamrolled,” which suggests intellectual leverage, it's “corrupted,” as in deployment of cash and hard assets. It looks to me like the NYT headline writer never read the piece. But it's an excellent exposé, a classic exercise in what Brandeis called “capture.”
Dan Goldman voted last summer with his crypto donors & the GOP to move crypto regulation away from the SEC to the far weaker CFTC, which this NYT investigation reveals is utterly captured by the industry:
Oh, hmm, wonder if the Trump family investments in prediction markets and crypto contributed to them getting away with crimes left and right and up and down, all day long. — Gift link. — www.nytimes.com/2026/05/24/u... [embedded post]
Latest poster child for industry capture. “How Prediction Markets and Crypto Firms Steamrolled a Watchdog Agency.” The only people who are benefiting are insiders. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/24/u...