Trump pledges to protect the crypto industry and ensure prediction markets ‘thrive’ - NBC News

President Donald Trump on Tuesday stressed the importance of establishing the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s “exclusive authority” over prediction markets and vowed to protect the cryptocurrency industry. “It is critically important that the CFTC’s exclusive authority over Prediction Markets is maintained, and that they will thrive,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Under my leadership, we are setting ‘rules of the road’ that are the Gold Standard for the States.” “Other Countries are after this new form of Financial Market, and we want to remain at the top,” he said. “Likewise, and even more importantly, where we are currently the Crypto (Bitcoin, etc.) Capital of the World, other Countries are trying diligently to replace us in that capacity, but we won’t let that happen.” Trump vowed to safeguard the interests of prediction markets and crypto after The New York Times published a major investigation Sunday. It revealed that the CFTC has helped advance prediction markets “at virtually every turn” while softening regulatory enforcement of digital currencies — including by culling the commission’s ranks and sidelining career officials. Trump and his family have financial ties to both the prediction market industry and several lucrative crypto ventures, including a crypto company, World Liberty Financial. Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., has ties to Kalshi and Polymarket, the two most prominent platforms in the event-contract betting industry. As prediction markets come under increased scrutiny from states that accuse them of operating as unlicensed casinos in violation of state gaming laws, their future largely rests on who ultimately has jurisdiction over the markets and the legal right to regulate them. It’s a fierce debate underway in Washington and in statehouses across the country. On one side, Trump and his allies at the CFTC argue that prediction markets are just that — markets — and should be regulated at the federal level like securities markets and commodities markets. On the other side is a growing number of governors and state attorneys general from both political parties who argue that event contract betting — especially on sports — is just gambling by another name and should be regulated at the state level just like casinos and lotteries are. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, signed a law last week that would ban prediction market sites from operating in the state — a first-of-its-kind piece of legislation in the country. The Trump administration responded by suing to assert the CFTC’s authority over the state. Trump called out Walz in his post Tuesday, along with a handful of state-level officials who have moved to regulate prediction markets this year, including New York Attorney General Letitia James. James, Trump’s longtime political and legal foe, sued two crypto firms, Coinbase and Gemini, recently, alleging they were “running gambling operations” in the state through their prediction market platforms. The companies say they are regulated at the federal level, not by the states.