CFTC Innovation Council Welcomes Leaders from Prediction Markets and Cryptocurrency Exchanges

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has initiated its new CEO Innovation Council, incorporating several blockchain industry leaders alongside traditional finance executives.

As stated in a announcement released on Wednesday, the council will focus on discussions concerning market structure developments related to the derivatives markets regulated by the CFTC.

Key discussion themes will include “tokenization, crypto assets, 24/7 trading, perpetual contracts, prediction markets and blockchain market infrastructure.”

Participants include leaders from crypto exchanges and prediction markets like Polymarket, Kalshi, Kraken, Gemini, Bitnomial, Crypto.com, and Bullish.

In addition to these crypto CEOs, traditional finance representatives come from major exchanges such as CME Group, Cboe Global Markets, Nasdaq, Intercontinental Exchange, and the London Stock Exchange Group.

Related: Crypto among sectors ‘debanked’ by 9 major banks: US regulator

“We are building on the success of the CFTC Crypto CEO Forum and the SEC-CFTC Joint Roundtable with our CFTC CEO Innovation Council, specifically focused on market structure developments in derivatives markets,” stated acting CFTC Chairman Caroline Pham.

CFTC striving to enhance derivative market infrastructure and regulation

This recent initiative by the CFTC follows the announcement of a crypto collateral derivatives market pilot program by acting chairman Pham.

The pilot aims to allow CFTC-registered futures commission merchants to use Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and Circle’s stablecoin USDC as margin collateral, evaluating the integration of crypto within regulated markets.