Cftc Chair Mike Selig Grilled By Both Parties Over Prediction Markets And Hyperliquid

CFTC Chairman Mike Selig (@ChairmanSelig) faced bipartisan criticism at a House Agriculture Committee hearing on Thursday, with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle questioning his agency's approach to prediction markets and offshore crypto derivatives.

Democrats focused much of their scrutiny on suspicious futures trades placed shortly before major Trump administration announcements. Among the examples raised was a $500 million oil bet reportedly made just 15 minutes before the president's March 23 post regarding Iran negotiations. Lawmakers pressed Selig on whether the CFTC had taken adequate steps to investigate such activity.

Representative Jim Costa (D-CA) also challenged Selig over prediction markets tied to war and the deaths of political figures, describing them as "profiting from tragedy." Selig acknowledged he is working toward a proposed rulemaking on the matter but defended the legality of such contracts under the agency's broad commodity definition.

On the Republican side, Representative Austin Scott (R-GA) directed his questions at $HYPE operator Hyperliquid, a decentralized perpetual futures exchange that currently operates outside CFTC jurisdiction. Scott warned that the platform's growing volume across contracts including oil could have meaningful consequences for US consumers, and urged the agency to hold offshore platforms to the same regulatory standards as their American counterparts.

The hearing underscored growing congressional appetite for tighter oversight of both prediction markets and decentralized derivatives platforms, with neither party appearing satisfied by Selig's responses.