Quintenz: A Chair & a Conflict? 🤨

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So, the wheels of power grind slowly, eh? The White House, in a fit of…consideration, has put a hold on poor Brian Quintenz’s ascension to the throne – I mean, Chairmanship – of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. A pause, they call it. I call it a good, long look at what sort of creatures we’re letting near the levers.

Old Trump, bless his heart, saw fit to tap Quintenz, a man of venture capital and fancy policies, to lead the CFTC. A16z, you say? Sounds like a robot uprising in the making… but that’s another story.

The Smell of Trouble: Kalshi and the Shifting Sands

Turns out, there’s a whiff of something…unpleasant in the air. A suspicion, a murmur—a full-blown chorus of concern, actually—about Quintenz’s little side hustle. He sits on the board of Kalshi, a prediction market. And when you’re regulating the arena, shouldn’t you perhaps…not be a player? One might think.

Apparently, Quintenz’s advance team, ever eager, went sniffing around for dirt on Kalshi’s competitors—Polymarket and PredictIt—during this “transition period.” Confidential information, you understand. Like vultures circling, hoping for a weakness. Honestly, the audacity! 🙄

He’s *still* on Kalshi’s board, mind you. A regulator regulating…himself? You couldn’t write a more absurd scene for a melodrama.

[ ZOOMER ]

WHITE HOUSE PAUSE IN PROCESS TO INSTALL NEW CFTC CHAIR RUMOURED TO BE DUE TO HIS TEAM SEEKING CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION ON POLYMARKET AND PREDICTITT WHILST HE CURRENTLY SITS ON RIVAL KALSHI’S BOARD: ELEANOR TERRETT

Young Eleanor Terrett, of the Crypto America broadcast, confirmed what everyone was whispering. A delay! A scandal brewing! Multiple possibilities, she says. As if one possibility isn’t juicy enough! 😜

Apparently the Senate might not have the votes, the gaming folks are throwing a fit, and even the Winklevoss twins – those sons of privilege – are furrowing their brows. Who knew they cared about anything beyond their own reflections?
But it’s that blog, “What an FOIA Request Tells Us About the CFTC Nominee and Potential Conflicts of Interest,” that’s really stirred the pot. Capitol Hill is agog, they say.

The Papers Talk: A Tale of Emails and Eavesdropping

This blog, born of a Freedom of Information Act request—a noble pursuit, if you ask me—reveals that Quintenz’s incoming chief of staff, one Kevin Webb, was busy making inquiries. Briefings on everything! Seriatims, confidential votes, even which employees were in the doghouse. Nosy, nosy, nosy!

And what were these briefings about? Why, the applications of Kalshi’s competitors, of course! Polymarket’s QCX platform, PredictIt’s Aristotle…all under the microscope. A coincidence? I think not. 🤨

Remember how Kalshi’s recent troubles also squashed Polymarket like a bug? A 40% drop in activity! Suddenly, those inquiries look a little…pointed.

So, here we have a man, still tied to Kalshi, seeking intel on its rivals. A clear conflict, wouldn’t you say? Though some will claim it’s just routine chatter during a shake-up. “Routine,” they say. As if digging for secrets is a normal part of a polite handover!

“If Quintenz asked for and received information about DCMs that are or will be competitors of Kalshi’s… that’s arguably a conflict of interest,” the blogger writes, stating the obvious, the poor soul.

Quintenz swore he’d stay away from Kalshi-related matters, he said he’d use a “screener”. But did he? Did those safeguards hold during this frantic transition? That, my friends, is the question!

The White House is playing coy, refusing to say why the vote was delayed. But Bloomberg says Quintenz is still in the running. For now. The Closing Line report, however, is circulating like wildfire amongst lobbyists and policy wonks. A ticking bomb, perhaps? 💣

This whole saga, like so many in the world of prediction markets, shows just how quickly regulation and politics become tangled in a mess. A spectacle, truly. And a rather unpleasant one at that.

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2025-07-30 11:47