Michael S. “Mike” Selig is an American financial regulatory attorney who has served as the 16th chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission since December 22, 2025. He leads the independent federal regulator responsible for overseeing U.S. futures, options, swaps, and other derivatives markets. His career across the CFTC, private legal practice, and the Securities and Exchange Commission's Crypto Task Force gives him a central role in U.S. policy concerning crypto derivatives, digital asset market structure, and tokenized finance.
Overview
- Current role: Chairman and commissioner, Commodity Futures Trading Commission
- Sworn in: December 22, 2025
- Commission term: Through April 13, 2029
- Previous role: Chief counsel of the SEC Crypto Task Force and senior advisor to SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins
- Education: B.S. in philosophy and political science, Florida State University; J.D., George Washington University Law School
Appointment and CFTC Leadership
President Donald Trump nominated Selig on October 27, 2025. The U.S. Senate confirmed him by a 53-43 vote on December 18, and he was sworn in four days later, succeeding Acting Chair Caroline Pham. As chairman, Selig directs an agency whose mandate includes derivatives exchange and clearinghouse oversight, market surveillance, registration, rulemaking, and enforcement against fraud and manipulation.
The CFTC does not set monetary policy or the federal funds target range, responsibilities assigned to the Federal Reserve. It does, however, oversee derivatives tied to interest rates, currencies, energy, agricultural commodities, metals, and digital assets. These markets are widely used by institutions, producers, and commercial firms to price and hedge macroeconomic risk, making the chairman relevant to the broader operation of U.S. financial markets.
Early Career and Private Practice
Selig earned his undergraduate degree from Florida State University and his law degree from George Washington University Law School, where he served as articles editor of The George Washington Law Review. He began his government career as a law clerk to CFTC Commissioner J. Christopher Giancarlo in 2014 and 2015, gaining early exposure to derivatives regulation and financial technology policy.
He later practiced at global law firms including Cadwalader, Reed Smith, Perkins Coie, and Willkie Farr & Gallagher. Selig joined Willkie in 2022 and later became a partner in its Asset Management Department and Digital Works practice. His work covered securities and commodities regulation, registration, enforcement, transactions, and product development for commercial end users, futures commission merchants, swap dealers, exchanges, clearing organizations, asset managers, and digital asset businesses.
SEC Crypto Task Force
In March 2025, the SEC named Selig chief counsel of its Crypto Task Force. He also served as a senior advisor to SEC Chairman Paul Atkins. In that role, he worked on digital asset securities policy, coordination between the SEC and CFTC, and efforts to update federal rules for blockchain-based markets. He also participated in the President's Working Group on Digital Asset Markets and contributed to its policy report on digital financial technology.
Crypto and Market Structure Agenda
As CFTC chairman, Selig launched the “Future-Proof” initiative to review rules developed for traditional derivatives markets and assess their application to newer products and trading models. In March 2026, he established an Innovation Task Force focused on crypto assets and blockchain technology, artificial intelligence and autonomous systems, and prediction markets and event contracts.
Selig has also worked with the SEC to advance Project Crypto as a joint policy initiative covering registration, disclosure, custody, clearing, surveillance, and other areas where securities and commodities regulation intersect. He has publicly favored principles-based, fit-for-purpose rules and has said policy should be established through transparent rulemaking rather than enforcement actions alone.
Relevance to the Crypto Industry
The CFTC directly regulates U.S. crypto derivatives and can pursue fraud and manipulation involving spot commodity markets. Its decisions affect products linked to Bitcoin, perpetual contracts, tokenized collateral, stablecoins, decentralized market infrastructure, and institutional trading. Broader supervision of spot digital commodity platforms remains more limited without additional statutory authority from Congress.
Selig's role therefore combines traditional oversight of agricultural, energy, interest-rate, and financial derivatives with the development of rules for onchain markets. His stated priorities emphasize market integrity, customer protection, interagency coordination, and regulatory frameworks that distinguish among intermediaries, software developers, and decentralized protocols.
