The Trump administration’s newly announced Innovation Advisory Committee at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission may look like a routine government panel. In reality, it represents the formal combination of crypto, prediction markets, traditional exchanges and sports betting under one federal derivatives umbrella.
First reported by Brecca Stoll of The Daily Wire, who detailed how the CFTC assembled 35 executives across crypto, decentralized finance, prediction markets and legacy financial institutions. Stoll later shared the full roster on X, writing that Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev and Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan were among those tapped for the new committee.
Prediction markets, crypto, and… DraftKings?
The committee includes a rare mix of direct competitors and institutional incumbents. Among prediction market leaders are Tarek Mansour of Kalshi and Shayne Coplan of Polymarket.
They sit alongside crypto CEOs such as Brian Armstrong of Coinbase and Anatoly Yakovenko of Solana Labs, as well as trading and exchange executives including Jeff Sprecher and Terry Duffy.
The inclusion of FanDuel and DraftKings executives alongside derivatives and crypto leaders prompted questions online, though both are part of the Coalition for Prediction Markets, announced late last year.
Heatmap correspondent Matthew Zeitlin asked why DraftKings was included given its apparent difference from regulated exchanges and crypto platforms. The answer lies in regulatory jurisdiction: prediction markets, sports betting derivatives and event contracts increasingly overlap within the CFTC’s purview.
why is draft kings on the list? isn't their business totally different from robinhood, kalshi, and polymarket's? https://t.co/y4UlpyRUqi
— Matthew Zeitlin (@MattZeitlin) February 13, 2026
As one industry observer, Nathan Dean, noted in response to Stoll’s post, the lineup is powerful and represents “everyone you need from the crypto, equity and derivatives worlds.” He also cautioned that advisory committees make recommendations rather than set policy directly.
“This is a powerful line-up. Everyone you need from the crypto, equity and derivatives worlds.”
CFTC aims to future-proof markets
The timing is significant. The CFTC recently withdrew a Biden-era rule that had restricted futures contracts tied to political and athletic events. That opened the door for federally regulated prediction markets to expand in sports and political contracts.
CFTC Chairman Michael Selig explained that the Innovation Advisory Committee was part of a modernization effort. In comments reported by Stoll, Selig said the committee would help “future-proof” markets and provide clearer rules for what he described as the “Golden Age of American Financial Markets.”
On yesterday’s Odds Lots podcast he made it very clear that the CFTC does not merit regulate, “We don’t tell people what they should be entering into contracts on. We create rules and regulations for those markets to ensure they are integrity, resilient, vibrant, and have guardrails and investor protections … We’re not telling people whether to trade pork bellies or Cardi B contracts or anything else.”
This marks a distinct shift in tone. Under the prior administration, prediction markets and crypto platforms frequently faced uncertainty over jurisdiction and enforcement. The new committee suggests an effort to integrate these sectors into the formal derivatives framework.
Advisory committees don’t write the rules
Prediction markets were once treated as niche experiments. Now, their CEOs are seated alongside leaders of Nasdaq, the London Stock Exchange Group and CME Group in a federal advisory capacity. The CFTC’s committee acknowledges that event contracts, crypto derivatives and traditional futures markets are combining.
That combination is already visible in market behavior. Platforms such as Robinhood and Coinbase have launched regulated prediction products. Kalshi has positioned itself as a federally supervised exchange. Polymarket continues to operate onchain while engaging with regulatory stakeholders.
The committee formalizes what the market has been signaling: prediction markets are becoming part of financial infrastructure.
Still, advisory committees do not write rules. They provide recommendations. Whether those recommendations lead to durable regulatory clarity will depend on how the CFTC translates industry feedback into enforceable standards.
For prediction markets, the stakes are high. Federal recognition can increase institutional adoption and reduce state-by-state uncertainty. At the same time, closer integration with regulators could impose stricter compliance and surveillance requirements.
