The board of Kalshi could be in for a shake-up if Brian Quintenz is confirmed in his position as Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Quintenz has stated that he’ll step down from the board of directors at Kalshi if he is appointed to the position.
Kalshi is the predictions market, a betting website that covers more than just sports. Kalshi’s current offerings range from what black market entrepreneur Ross Ulbricht will say at a Bitcoin conference, to egg prices and bets on Karoline Leavitt’s next press briefing.
However, Quintenz will resign as the CFTC is currently in a lawsuit with Kalshi over political betting. On May 5, the CFTC had moved to drop its appeal against Kalshi’s win, with Reuters reporting that it came down to a 3-0 vote and four abstaining from it.
Quintenz has a lot of recusing to do
With his fingers in all the pies, Quintenz has also disclosed his crypto investments totalling $3.4 million, and will recuse himself from matters to do with company a16z for two years. His current position at a16z is Global Head of Crypto Policy. He’ll also recuse himself from matters to do with Kalshi, despite stepping down.
The potential chairman of the CFTC has also disclosed that he resigned from the “Crypto Council for Innovation”.
Quintez served as commissioner of the CFTC during both Trump and Biden’s administrations from 2017 to 2021. There’s currently no date set for his confirmation hearing from a brief glance. However, it is expected to happen during the summer.
As more scrutiny comes for websites like Kalshi, such as Polymarket, especially as its stepping on toes in the sportsbook arena. A new report from the Financial Times has shown that Kalshi is potentially at an unfair advantage compared to Flutter and DraftKings. It can skip over bans in states that don’t allow for sports betting, while its competitors are stuck upholding the law.
