By Nick Devor

As the Commodity Futures Trading Commission sheds staff at its flagship Chicago office, lawmakers are questioning the agency's ability to regulate burgeoning markets tied to cryptocurrencies and event contracts.

"CFTC's Chicago office had a strong reputation of protecting Americans from predatory industries, but this Administration has pushed these talented attorneys out just as crypto and online betting have surged in popularity. This seems far from a coincidence as the president and his family peddle their own cryptocurrency schemes," Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) told Barron's this week. "This move by the Trump administration will allow predatory companies to run rampant, taking advantage of American consumers with few consequences."

In a separate statement, Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D., N.M.) told Barron's: "As the Trump family profits off the White House and the administration hands out pardons to financial criminals, it comes as no surprise that this administration continues to make it easier for scammers to prey on American consumers. We should be investing in staff and keeping consumers safe."

A White House spokesperson didn't respond to a request for comment.

Durbin and Luján both sit on the Senate's Agricultural Committee, which holds congressional oversight of the CFTC.

Barron's reported this week that the CFTC's Chicago office had lost its last enforcement attorney, a team that previously consisted of 20 lawyers. Four of the office's five chief trial attorneys were laid off on a single day last July, as was the division of enforcement deputy director.

A CFTC spokesperson says those reductions in force were "aimed at reducing redundant reporting layers within middle management."

In a Thursday statement to Barron's, CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said: "Several employees left before my tenure, but we have appropriate resources throughout the country. And while we regulate activity across the country, we don't have offices in every state. Regulatory agencies don't operate like Starbucks. Most of our attorneys are at headquarters in Washington, with some employees in regional offices. We are always looking to add talent in key areas, and the door is open for those who want to join a great organization."

A spokesperson said that the CFTC's Chicago office accounted for 20 of the 168 total cases filed over the past three years.

The CFTC has four offices: in Chicago; New York; Washington, D.C.; and Kansas City. The Chicago office has historically taken on outsize importance because of its proximity to the Chicago Board of Trade -- later merged with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange -- which has been home to the global commodities market for more than a century. The CFTC's two largest cases in 2024 -- civil charges against FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried and Binance's Changpeng Zhao -- were heavily staffed out of the Chicago office.

Write to Nick Devor at nicholas.devor@barrons.com

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February 12, 2026 14:27 ET (19:27 GMT)

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