TL;DR:
- A New York Times investigation revealed that Trump and his family received regulatory approvals from the CFTC for three crypto firms linked to them.
- Some officials who flagged deficiencies at Polymarket, Crypto.com and Gemini Titan were removed from their positions in late 2025.
- Under the Trump administration, the CFTC closed at least five active crypto investigations and filed only two cases, compared to more than 80 under Biden.
An investigation published by the New York Times exposes a pattern at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC): career officials who raised concerns about three crypto firms with direct ties to the Trump family were removed from their positions, while the companies in question received the regulatory approvals they sought.
The three companies involved are Polymarket, Crypto.com and Gemini Titan, an affiliate of Gemini. Each required CFTC approval for their prediction market plans. Polymarket received an investment from Donald Trump Jr. through his venture capital firm. Crypto.com is a commercial partner of Trump Media. The founders of Gemini, for their part, back American Bitcoin, co-founded by Eric, also a son of the President.
Dismissals of Internal CFTC Staff
Part of the CFTC’s technical staff did not stay silent. According to records cited by the investigation, they warned that Polymarket lacked sufficient anti-fraud protections, that Crypto.com did not guarantee fair conditions for small bettors, and that Gemini Titan began operating before completing the mandatory regulatory review. The consequences were immediate: in late 2025, two officials were suspended with pay for raising those concerns. Three other employees tied to crypto enforcement faced the same outcome.
Then acting chair Caroline Pham and senior advisor Brigitte Weyls intervened to ensure the three firms obtained their respective approvals, overriding the opinion of career staff. Both later left the agency. Pham joined MoonPay, a company that already had ties to Polymarket. Weyls became general counsel of Gemini Titan, the very firm whose approval she had championed.
Lawsuits Against Another Trump Family Company
The investigation also addressed other angles. Justin Sun, one of the best-known crypto billionaires, filed a fraud lawsuit against World Liberty Financial, the Trump family venture, alleging it operated as a scheme to freeze more than $70 million in tokens he owned.
World Liberty Financial responded with a defamation lawsuit. Separately, earlier reports had noted that an Abu Dhabi company with government backing invested $2 billion in World Liberty Financial, and the timeline coincides with an imminent transfer of high-end artificial intelligence microprocessors from the Trump administration to the United Arab Emirates.
