Trump Expected to Join Crypto CEOs at the White House a Day Before the CFTC’s First Innovation Panel

Trump and CFTC Chair Michael Selig are expected at a Wednesday White House session with crypto, prediction market, and AI executives, one day before the agency’s new advisory panel meets.

President Donald Trump is expected to attend a White House meeting on Wednesday with chief executives from the crypto, prediction market, and artificial intelligence industries, according to multiple media reports. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Michael Selig and Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins are also expected to be there. The session, first reported by Politico, is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. ET at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, next door to the West Wing, The Block reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick may also attend, one person told CoinDesk.

This story is an excerpt from the Unchained Daily newsletter.

The gathering is reportedly a prelude to Thursday, when the CFTC’s Innovation Advisory Committee holds its inaugural meeting from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET, according to a Federal Register notice. Selig published the agenda last Thursday: three sessions covering crypto asset regulation, artificial intelligence, and prediction markets. He named the panel’s 35 members in February, among them Polymarket’s Shayne Coplan, Kalshi’s Tarek Mansour, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, and executives from Cboe, CME Group, Nasdaq, Intercontinental Exchange, and DTCC.

The meetings come at a moment when crypto legislation has stopped moving. The Clarity Act, which would split digital asset oversight between the SEC and the CFTC, is stalled over yield rules and ethics tied to Trump’s own crypto holdings. Majority Leader John Thune filed cloture on the motion to proceed earlier this month, setting a vote for 2:15 p.m. ET on Sept. 15, the day after the Senate returns from recess. Clearing that step takes 60 votes and would not by itself pass the bill.

Prediction market oversight is another unresolved question, and it sits on Thursday’s agenda alongside recent state litigation and the respective roles of federal and state authorities. Selig has argued the CFTC holds exclusive jurisdiction over event contracts and has sued several states over efforts to restrict Kalshi and Polymarket. Both companies had a rough week: Baltimore sued them last Thursday over sports-related contracts, pulling Coinbase, Robinhood, and Webull into the case, and a Washington state court ordered Kalshi the same day to halt most of its offerings there.

Trump has already sided with his CFTC chair, calling exclusive federal authority over prediction markets “critically important” in a Truth Social post in May. Donald Trump Jr. is a strategic adviser to both Kalshi and Polymarket and has invested in Polymarket through the venture firm 1789 Capital.

Related Listen: DEX in the City: How Kalshi’s Rough Week Became a Federal Fight for Prediction Markets