CFTC Chairman: AI has helped alleviate pressure from staff cuts at crypto regulators

CoinFeed reported on April 17th, citing CoinDesk, that Mike Selig, Chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), stated at a congressional hearing that artificial intelligence has helped compensate for staff reductions at the agency. Since 2025, approximately one-quarter of the CFTC's staff have left due to the Trump administration's mandate to cut federal labor, but the agency is also required to regulate the rapidly growing cryptocurrency and prediction markets. Selig stated that AI tools, such as Microsoft Copilot, have been extremely useful in monitoring and investigations, and are being integrated into various workflows to make the agency operate "more efficiently." He acknowledged that "multiple investigations" are underway in the prediction markets and that there is "zero tolerance" for market misconduct. The CFTC's budget request for next year only requests an increase of three law enforcement personnel to 108, still 23% less than the 140 personnel planned for 2025.