The list of people criticizing President Donald Trump’s nominee to chair the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Brian Quintenz keeps growing.
After news broke last week that Quintenz and members of his team have sent ethicaly questionable emails to the CFTC regarding the organization. While done under the presumption that Quintenz wanted to ready to take over the agency, there are questions about how much if any confidentail information has been released while Quintenz still remains as a member of Kalshi’s board.
Rep. Dina Titus is asking for the CFTC to clear the air and release all of its communication between Quintenz and his team and the CFTC regarding a potential transition.
In a letter to acting CFTC Chair Caroline Pham, Titus outlined her concerns, particularly as it impacts gaming in the country, given that Titus chairs the Congressional Gaming Caucus.
“I request that you release all relevant communications from or about Mr. Quintenz related to prediction markets and event contracts. As you are aware, Mr. Quintenz is currently on the board of Kalshi and holds stock options in the company. Kalshi is a Designated Contract Market regulated by the CFTC that offers event contracts related to sports and other topics. Since Mr. Quintenz’s nomination in February, the CFTC has taken several actions related to prediction markets that have impacted Kalshi and its competitors. This includes settling lawsuits with Kalshi, approving new prediction market platforms and closing relevant investigations,” Titus requested.
The Nevada representative is no longer willing to give either Quintenz or the agency the benefit of the doubt.
“While I hope Mr. Quintenz is following the law and his own ethical pledge, unfortunately this agency has already proven not to be transparent, cancelling a previously announced public roundtable, ignoring my petition request, and disregarding CFTC regulations and the law by allowing the trading of event contracts on sporting events that are illegal gambling,” she added.
The criticism around Quintenz is now expanding to beyond the gaming industry.
Crypto-centric business men Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are said to be worried that Quintenz is not going to be revolutionary enough when it comes to integrating cryptocurrency into the CFTC mandate.
In a recent interview with CoinDesk, Tyler Winklevoss went on the records with his concerns regarding Quintenz.
“The Trump Administration wants to cut red tape and deregulate. This nominee continues to advocate for dramatically increasing budgets and overregulation that will lead to regulatory capture,” he noted.
The Trump Administration tried to push through all of his pending nominations before the Senate went on its August recess but failed to do so.
