How Prediction Markets and Crypto Firms Steamrolled a Watchdog Agency

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https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/24/us/how-prediction-markets-and-crypto-firms-steamrolled-a-watchdog-agency.html

How Prediction Markets and Crypto Firms Steamrolled a Watchdog Agency
By Sharon LaFraniere and David Yaffe-Bellany
May 24, 2026

Last fall, a high-stakes struggle unfolded inside the red brick walls of an obscure federal agency.

Three companies — each with ties to the Trump family’s business empire — needed the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to bless their ambitions in the white-hot field of prediction markets.

Senior career officials worried about whether Crypto.com was treating small bettors fairly. They feared that a second firm, Polymarket, did not have strong enough protections against fraud. A third, an offshoot of the crypto firm Gemini, had yet to pass the agency’s required review to open for business.

Despite these concerns, Caroline D. Pham, then acting chairman of the commission, and her senior counsel intervened to help the firms get what they wanted, according to people familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions.

By Christmas, the agency had put two top officials who had raised questions about the companies on leave, barred them from the office and placed them under internal investigation. Three other senior officials who had enforced laws involving cryptocurrencies — another industry linked to the Trumps — suffered the same fate.

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