The Commodity Futures Trading Commission opens a new chapter this afternoon. Its Innovation Advisory Committee meets for the first time at 1:00 pm Eastern in Washington. The agency is livestreaming the full three-hour session on CFTC.gov. Notably, the timing is deliberate. The meeting lands one day after President Trump hosted crypto and finance executives at the White House. Many of the same faces will now sit across the table from their regulator.
This afternoon at 1:00 PM ET, the @CFTC will kick off the inaugural meeting of its Innovation Advisory Committee to discuss crypto, AI and prediction markets.
— Eleanor Terrett (@EleanorTerrett) August 20, 2026
Many of the executives who attended yesterday’s White House event will be there, including additional leaders from… pic.twitter.com/QvthDXHZsU
A Three-Hour Agenda Split Across Three Technologies
The published agenda divides the afternoon into three working sessions. Crypto regulation receives 50 minutes, artificial intelligence receives 35, and prediction markets receive another 50. Walt Lukken, CEO of the Futures Industry Association, chairs the committee. Chairman Michael Selig sponsors it, while senior advisor Michael Passalacqua serves as designated federal officer. Additionally, the committee replaced the agency’s older Technology Advisory Committee earlier this month. That swap signals a broader mandate than legacy market plumbing. The CFTC renewed the charter for two more years on August 12.
Who Actually Sits on the Committee
The CFTC named 35 members in its initial announcement. The roster has since grown past 40. Crypto operators hold the largest bloc, and the balance leans heavily toward people who build and run markets.
Crypto exchanges and infrastructure
- Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, and Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Kraken
- Tyler Winklevoss of Gemini and Kris Marszalek of Crypto.com
- Hayden Adams of Uniswap Labs, representing onchain trading
- Anatoly Yakovenko of Solana Labs and Sergey Nazarov of Chainlink Labs
- Brad Garlinghouse of Ripple, Nathan McCauley of Anchorage Digital, and Peter Mintzberg of Grayscale
Traditional market infrastructure
- Terry Duffy of CME Group and Jeff Sprecher of Intercontinental Exchange
- Adena Friedman of Nasdaq and Craig Donohue of Cboe Global Markets
- Frank LaSalla of DTCC and Andrej Bolkovic of the Options Clearing Corporation
Prediction markets and sports betting
- Tarek Mansour of Kalshi and Shayne Coplan of Polymarket
- Jason Robins of DraftKings and Christian Genetski of FanDuel
Capital and academia
- Chris Dixon of a16z crypto, Alana Palmedo of Paradigm, and Vance Spencer of Framework Ventures
- Professors Harry Crane and Carla Reyes
Selig framed the group plainly when he announced it. He said the committee draws participants “from every corner of the marketplace.” He also called it “a major asset for the Commission.”
Great to be back at the White House today alongside @realDonaldTrump, @SECPaulSAtkins, @ChairmanSelig and leaders across the crypto industry.
— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) August 20, 2026
The big picture has never been clearer: 67 million Americans hold crypto today (that’s nearly 1 in 4!). Crypto isn't a fringe industry.… pic.twitter.com/fsyX1ZwG2a
The White House Event That Set the Stage
Trump hosted the crypto and finance contingent at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on August 19. He used the appearance to press the Senate on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act. “Now we need Congress to take the next step by passing the Clarity Act,” he said. Garlinghouse, Armstrong, Sprecher, Sethi, Vlad Tenev, and the Winklevoss twins attended. SEC Chair Paul Atkins and Selig joined them. Meanwhile, the bill remains stuck. It cleared the House in July 2025 and advanced through Senate Banking in May 2026. A Senate procedural vote is now set for September 15.
Session I: Crypto’s Path From Enforcement to Rules
The first panel examines how crypto regulation evolved from uncertainty toward clarity. Agenda topics include the state licensing patchwork and the absence of a federal market structure framework. Members will also share what the agenda calls “stories from the trenches” on regulation by enforcement. Importantly, the CFTC arrives with a real track record to defend. Its 12-month Crypto Sprint, launched in August 2025, targeted listed spot crypto trading on registered futures exchanges. Spot crypto trading began on one designated contract market in December 2025. Then in May 2026, the agency approved a cash-settled bitcoin perpetual futures contract. That order cleared a path for onshore perpetuals. Staff also issued no-action relief covering payment stablecoins and digital commodities posted as margin collateral.
Session II: Agentic Finance Arrives
The AI block runs a tight 35 minutes but covers serious ground. Panelists will discuss AI applications across trading, compliance, surveillance, and risk management. The agenda then turns to what it calls “the rise of agentic finance.” That means autonomous agents executing transactions and managing portfolios without a human in the loop. Furthermore, the CFTC wants to know whether its existing regulatory principles already apply to those participants. The agenda explicitly flags the intersection of crypto and AI as a discussion point. Selig has separately tied this work to a Commerce Department push on domestic compute capacity.
Session III: Prediction Markets and the Jurisdictional Fight
The longest session tackles the messiest problem. Event contracts have scaled fast, and the legal ground under them remains contested. Combined Kalshi and Polymarket volume hit roughly $44.8 billion in June 2026, according to industry trackers. For comparison, all legal U.S. sportsbooks handled about $14 billion per month on average in 2025. Consequently, states pushed back hard. Thirteen states now hold an active enforcement posture, active litigation, or both. The CFTC sued Arizona, Connecticut, and Illinois in April 2026 to block state enforcement against Kalshi and Polymarket. Days later, the Third Circuit ruled for the agency. It held that sports event contracts on regulated exchanges fall under exclusive federal jurisdiction. The CFTC also proposed a new event contracts rule in June. The agenda lists recent state litigation as an explicit topic.
WATCH: @ChairmanSelig will soon kick off the Inaugural Innovation Advisory Committee meeting.
— CFTC (@CFTC) August 20, 2026
Tune in here at 1:00 PM ET📺 https://t.co/o6GBYUf9on
What to Watch After the Gavel
Selig has already answered the question this meeting most invites. On August 4, he confirmed the agency holds digital asset rule proposals ready to advance. He plans to move them whether or not the CLARITY Act clears the Senate. However, proposals still require notice-and-comment periods that run for months. A finished federal framework for spot digital commodity markets remains quarters away, not weeks. The committee’s real function is narrower and more useful. It gives the CFTC a standing channel to the firms it will regulate. Public comments on today’s session stay open through August 27.
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