Acting Chair Caroline Pham Signals Regulatory Shift at CFTC

While her appointment suggested a shift, recent actions confirm that the agency is moving away from strict enforcement. Once facing uncertainty, platforms like Kalshi, Polymarket, Robinhood and Crypto.com may now have a clearer path forward.

Moving Away from Strict Regulation

Pham has criticized past regulations as overly rigid, arguing they stifled innovation. She believes predictive markets can provide valuable insights and should be embraced rather than restricted. Instead of aggressive enforcement, she advocates for balanced policies that support market growth while ensuring consumer protection.

A major focus for Pham is clarifying the legal status of event contracts. She sees current regulations as unclear, creating unnecessary challenges for companies.

To address this, she is pushing for public discussions to establish transparent guidelines that encourage industry expansion while maintaining regulatory oversight.

Industry Roundtable to Shape Future Policies

To gather input, Pham is organizing a roundtable with legal experts, industry leaders, and regulators. The discussion will cover past CFTC enforcement actions, court rulings, and the role of predictive markets in financial stability.

The goal is to create policies that foster innovation while preventing misleading practices.

Pham is rejecting the previous administration’s “regulation by enforcement” strategy. Critics argue this approach unfairly targeted platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket without clear guidelines. Instead, she is working to establish well-defined rules that allow event contract platforms to operate transparently.