The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is operating with fewer staff whilst overseeing an expanding mandate that includes digital assets, prediction markets and traditional derivatives, Chair Michael Selig told Congress on 16 Apr, adding that the agency is compensating through the use of artificial intelligence and automation.
CFTC Turns to AI as Staff Shrinks, Commodities Trading Evolves
16 April 2026 - 22:48 CEST
By Ana Pereira
Selig, speaking before a House Agriculture Committee hearing, said the agency inherited a backlog of prediction market contracts from the previous administration while shedding about 20% of its workforce in roughly the same timeframe.
"Under the prior administration, there was a lack of clarity on a lot of these contracts, and the floodgates really opened, and I inherited a lot of these contracts when I took office," said Selig, who was sworn in as chairman in December 2025.
The CFTC had 708 full-time employees at the end of fiscal year 2024. It now has approximately 543 employees, even as the Trump administration increasingly looks to the agency to oversee the so-called digital commodities.
AI fills gap
The CFTC has offset headcount reductions through automation and AI, the chairman said. "We are utilizing new tools, some from AI to automation, and other surveillance systems that we're building out," Selig told lawmakers, adding that the agency is now "running more efficiently" thanks to the combined AI push with administration downsize.
The federal agency started in 2025 with five commissioners but closed the year with a sole sitting commissioner, a configuration without precedent as it was designed to operate with five commissioners and no more than three from the same political party.
Offshore crude oil contracts
Remaining CFTC staff must navigate multiple regulatory priorities as the merger between traditional and digital assets happens faster than rules can be finalized. During Thursday's hearing, lawmakers pointed to a specific gap: crude oil perpetuals trading on decentralized exchanges beyond US oversight.
Rep. Austin Scott (R-Georgia) pointed out that decentralized exchanges are listing oil contracts "functionally identical to what is traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Intercontinental Exchange. But they do not have segregated funds, market surveillance or US oversight."
Scott cited data showing 200,000 orders per second on platforms like Hyperliquid, a decentralized exchange that allows traders to bet on asset prices through futures contracts without depositing funds to a regulated intermediary or facing US market surveillance. "Searching volumes in oil contracts are potentially impacting the price of a gallon of gas for US drivers," he told Selig.
When traders place orders using offshore trading platforms, the sheer volume of trading can push the actual price of oil up or down. That affects what consumers pay at the pump.
The CFTC's goal, he said, is to "onshore" unregulated markets under US rules. "We are very much aware of some of these products trading offshore in markets that are not comprehensively supervised by us," Selig said. "Our goal is always going to be to onshore those markets and to have the markets subject to our regulation here in the United States."
