The hollowing out of regulatory agencies has reached a critical point, with the CFTC soon to have just a single commissioner as the crypto industry heavily lobbies for it to become their primary regulator. In normal times, outgoing CFTC Commissioners would be replaced by a roughly bipartisan slate of presidential appointees, but Trump has not bothered to nominate any new commissioners besides his controversial pick for Chair. With the current CFTC Acting Chair set to depart after a new Chair is confirmed, Trump may hope to exert control over the independent regulatory body by installing a single pawn who will hold unilateral agency control.

This regulatory vacuum arises as the crypto industry continues to flex its political muscle into the midterms, with pro-crypto super PAC Fairshake leading all super PACs in 2025–2026 fundraising with $59 million raised (giving them a total of $120 million in cash on hand). Though Fairshake portrayed itself as a non-partisan PAC supporting pro-crypto candidates from both parties last election cycle, some wealthy and powerful industry executives have opted to support explicitly partisan PACs this time around. The Winklevoss twins, who run the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange and are major Trump backers, have poured $21 million into a new super PAC for Trump-aligned pro-crypto Congressional candidates, fearing the election of “Democrats [who] will have power to slow down and interfere with President Trump’s agenda.”

. . .

Trump family business interests

Shortly after the announcement that the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial would partner with the ALT5 Sigma Corporation to create a WLFI treasury company [I90], The Information reported that ALT5 “key adviser” Jon Isaac was under SEC investigation for falsely inflating the earnings of a family company to pump its stock price.1 ALT5 Sigma wrote that “Isaac is not — and never was — the President of ALT5 Sigma and he is not an advisor to the company.”2 Isaac himself also denied the reports, claiming “I am NOT under SEC investigation mentioned in these reports.” He acknowledged that he had previously taken over the predecessor company to ALT5 Sigma, JanOne, in a hostile takeover, but is now merely a “large shareholder”.3 However, Isaac remains a party to an ongoing SEC case that names JanOne and Live Ventures, where Isaac is currently CEO.4 Furthermore, Isaac has been a consultant to ALT5 since March 2024, in an agreement intended to last two years.5



. . . (Much, much more...)