CFTC Names Donald Battle Chief Data Innovation Officer, J. Matthew Haws Senior Advisor

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced on June 15, 2026 that it named Donald Battle as Chief Data Innovation Officer and J. Matthew Haws as Senior Advisor to the Chairman and Regional Director for Chicago.

“The CFTC names 35 executives including Brian Armstrong, Brad Garlinghouse, and Anatoly Yakovenko to guide the regulation of crypto derivatives in the United States”

Coin Academy

The appointments follow Chairman Michael Selig becoming the agency’s sole commissioner in January 2026 and filling at least eight senior-level positions across departments, including legal, economics, public affairs, and agricultural advisory.

Coin Academy

Battle will join the Division of Data and serve as a member of the Innovation Task Force, after previously working at the Securities and Exchange Commission on the SEC’s Crypto Task Force and as a virtual currency enforcement officer at the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

Selig said Battle’s background in “data science, blockchain forensics, programming interfaces, and cutting-edge AI solutions” would help drive the agency’s technology efforts, and Battle framed the move as “a true honor” to follow Selig from the SEC to the CFTC.

In parallel, the CFTC’s leadership changes arrive as the agency proposed “its first formal regulatory framework for prediction markets,” and as it filed a lawsuit against New Mexico to block the state from applying its gaming laws to federally registered prediction market platforms.

Chairman Michael Selig highlighted Battle’s background in blockchain forensics, data science, programming interfaces, and artificial intelligence as the CFTC builds out its digital asset expertise through the Innovation Task Force.

In the same period, the CFTC proposed a three-step test to determine which prediction market event contracts should be prohibited under the Commodity Exchange Act, and Selig described the proposal as “a durable, transparent framework” for identifying contracts that Congress directed the agency to scrutinize.

Cointelegraph

The CFTC’s prediction-market fight has also produced litigation beyond New Mexico, with the Cryptopolitan account listing suits against Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin.

In the New Mexico case, the CFTC complaint seeks a declaratory judgment that federal law gives it exclusive authority over these contracts, while the crypto.news account says the lawsuit names Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Attorney General Raúl Torrez.

Battle’s hiring is framed as a tech-driven shift in oversight, with the Cryptopolitan report noting that enforcement activity has dropped sharply, including that the agency filed just two crypto-related enforcement actions under the current administration compared to over 80 during the Biden era.

Beyond the CFTC’s internal staffing, the crypto debate is also centered on the CLARITY Act, which the TradingView account says will be debated in the U.S. Senate in January 2026.

“CFTC hires SEC adviser with blockchain forensics expertise as digital asset oversight heats up Donald Battle's move from the SEC Crypto Task Force to CFTC chief data innovation officer signals a new era of tech-driven regulation for digital commodities”

Crypto Briefing

The same TradingView source quotes David Sacks, White House senior adviser on crypto, saying “we are closer than ever to having the historic law on the structure of the crypto market adopted,” with Senate committee chairs Tim Scott and John Boozman giving their green light for submission to a session of scrutiny and amendment.

While Congress considers market-structure changes, the CFTC is simultaneously expanding advisory input, with Coin Academy saying it unveiled the composition of its Innovation Advisory Committee and naming 35 executives including Brian Armstrong, Brad Garlinghouse, Hayden Adams, Vlad Tenev, and Anatoly Yakovenko.

Coin Academy also says the committee nearly triples the size of a previous CEO council established in late 2025, and it lists additional members such as Adena Friedman, Terry Duffy, Craig Donohue, Jeff Sprecher, and Tom Farley.

Taken together, the sources portray a regulatory moment in which the CFTC is staffing up for data-driven oversight while the Senate prepares to debate how the SEC and CFTC roles should be clarified, and the CFTC’s leadership changes are positioned as part of that broader push.