TLDR
- Senator Elizabeth Warren will chair the Senate Banking Committee starting in January.
- A Warren aide said Trump family crypto businesses should preserve documents and prepare for tough questions.
- Prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket are among her main targets.
- A soldier charged over Polymarket bets and a $172,000+ Kalshi settlement have fueled insider trading concerns.
- Warren’s priorities include affordability, AI, prediction markets, financial crisis risk and accountability.
Senator Elizabeth Warren plans to put prediction markets and Trump family crypto businesses under the spotlight when she takes over the Senate Banking Committee in January. A Warren aide said the companies she plans to examine should start keeping their records now.
“Big Tech CEOs, Administration officials, Trump family crypto businesses, Wall Street executives, and giant corporations should preserve their documents and prepare to answer tough questions,” the aide said on Monday, according to The Block.
Warren is set to lead the committee after Democrats won control of the Senate in last week’s midterm elections. The results shifted leadership in both the House and the Senate.
Warren Lays Out Her Agenda
The aide said Warren will focus on affordability, artificial intelligence, prediction markets, the risk of a financial crisis, and accountability. These topics will shape the committee’s work in the new year.
“Warren is looking to focus on the issues that have been the focus of her career and drove the election outcomes across the country on Tuesday,” the aide said. The aide added that this includes making life more affordable, reining in industries that raise costs, and rooting out corruption.
Committee chairs set the agenda in Congress. As chair, Warren will lead work on banks, deposit insurance, housing, the Federal Reserve, and crypto. That role gives her the power to call hearings and request information.
Two other panels will also matter for crypto. Former Senator Sherrod Brown, who was newly elected, is expected to lead the Senate Agriculture Committee, while Representative Maxine Waters is poised to lead the House Financial Services Committee.
Warren has long been a critic of the crypto industry. Over the past year, she has pressed hard on crypto interests tied to President Donald Trump and his family.
In letters, she has asked for an investigation into Trump’s memecoin. She has also called for an ethics probe into alleged conflicts tied to World Liberty Financial, a Trump family backed crypto project, the United Arab Emirates, and Trump aides.
Insider Trading Cases Put Prediction Markets in Focus
Warren has also criticized prediction market platforms Kalshi and Polymarket. She has asked both companies for answers on election-related bets and how they plan to stop insider trading.
Lawmakers have raised insider trading concerns many times over the past year. Those concerns grew after an active-duty U.S. Army soldier was charged with using confidential information to place bets on Polymarket.
The bets were placed ahead of the capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro earlier this year. The Justice Department announced the soldier’s arrest in April.
In a separate case, a former White House teleprompter operator agreed to pay more than $172,000. He settled charges that he used his advance access to President Trump’s speeches to profit from trades on Kalshi.
Warren will take the gavel when the new Congress begins in January. Her committee has not yet released a schedule of hearings or letters aimed at Kalshi, Polymarket or Trump family crypto ventures.
The aide said Warren wants to change how these markets are overseen. “She is looking to end the current Wild West-style lack of oversight in this area, with corrupt insiders profiting,” the aide said.
