Trump CFTC Pick Brian Quintenz Questioned On Kalshi Ties

A US congresswoman has urged the commodities regulator to investigate its nominated chair, Brian Quintenz, over his ties to Kalshi, a prediction platform regulated by the CFTC. 

Democratic Representative Dina Titus asked Commodity Futures Trading Commission acting chair Caroline Pham in a letter on Monday to open “an inquiry into whether Mr. Brian Quintenz has violated CFTC policies, any applicable federal statute, or his own ethical pledge prior to his Senate confirmation” to chair the agency.

“Specifically, I request that you release all relevant communications from or about Mr. Quintenz related to prediction markets and event contracts,” she wrote. 

“As you are aware, Mr. Quintenz is currently on the board of Kalshi and holds stock options in the company.”

A vote on Quintenz’s nomination was recently derailed, having been delayed twice in the past month.

Last week, the Senate Agriculture Committee pulled a planned hearing for the nomination on request from the White House, but the administration reportedly still supports the nomination.

Congresswoman demands communications be released

Titus said a recent Freedom of Information Act request indicated that Quintenz had “sought information regarding Kalshi’s competitors and that he may be involved in agency decision-making prior to his Senate confirmation.”

“While I hope Mr. Quintenz is following the law and his own ethical pledge, unfortunately this agency has already proven not to be transparent,” she added, saying the CFTC had disregarded regulations “and the law by allowing the trading of event contracts on sporting events that are illegal gambling.”

Titus asked the CFTC to “release all communications between the agency and Mr. Quintenz related to commission matters on prediction markets,” including any attempts to direct people to “communicate with Mr. Quintenz through his private email.”

Titus aired concerns about Quintenz in June, posting on X at the time that he “must be asked about his plans for prediction markets” and if he led the CFTC, “every state’s ability to regulate and tax gaming is at stake.”

In February, she called prediction markets on sports a “backdoor way to allow sports betting in 50 states” that ignored “consumer protections, responsible gaming, integrity monitoring, and state tax revenue rules and regulations.”

“Impractical,” Quintenz won’t regulate Kalshi as sole commissioner

Titus said that the steps Quintenz pledged to take if made CFTC chair wouldn’t be practical, as he’s slated to be the only person on the typically five-strong commission steering the agency.

Pham has said she’ll leave the agency once Quintenz is confirmed, and the only other current commissioner, Kristin Johnson, said in May she’d quit “later this year” after her three-year term expired in April.

Quintenz said in a letter to the CFTC in May that if appointed to run the agency, he’d resign from Kalshi — which is regulated by the CFTC as a Designated Contract Market — and forfeit or divest his shares in the firm and would not participate in any matters involving the company for a year after he resigns. 

“Mr. Quintenz may be the only commissioner of the CFTC for some time, it seems impractical to believe that he will not make any decisions involving Kalshi for one year, considering the vast amount of regulatory and legal action concerning prediction markets,”  Titus said.

Related: White House crypto rules bring SEC-CFTC clarity for US crypto firms: Lawyer 

“Furthermore, regulatory inaction is of material benefit to Kalshi,” she added.

Winklevoss twins flip on Quintenz

Titus’s letter comes just days after Politico reported on Wednesday that crypto exchange Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss pressed President Donald Trump to reconsider Quintenz’s nomination.

The brothers reportedly told Trump that Quintenz wouldn’t shake up the CFTC enough and that he wasn’t aligned with the president’s agenda, pointing to Quintenz’s suggestion in a testimony in June that the CFTC’s budget needs a boost for its new responsibilities in regulating crypto.

It’s a sharp reversal from the twins’ take on Quintenz when he was first nominated by Trump, with Cameron Winklevoss posting on X in February that he was “exactly the leader the CFTC needs” while Tyler Winklevoss wrote the pick was “well deserved” and a “great choice for crypto and for America.”

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