Tensions Flare as CME, Kalshi Execs Clash Over Prediction Markets in DC

In brief

• CME Group Chairman Terry Duffy and Kalshi co-founder Luana Lopes Lara clashed during a CFTC roundtable in Washington, D.C.
• Duffy singled out Kalshi while questioning whether prediction markets face the same regulatory scrutiny as established exchanges.
• The clash comes amid a fight between federal and state regulators over prediction markets.

A CFTC roundtable on prediction markets turned heated Thursday when CME Group Chairman Terry Duffy and Kalshi co-founder Luana Lopes Lara traded insults over market manipulation and regulation.

The confrontation unfolded during a Commodity Futures Trading Commission meeting in Washington, D.C., as executives from traditional finance, crypto, and prediction markets debated how event contracts should be regulated.

Duffy, whose CME Group operates the world's largest futures exchange by volume, said he was "a lot concerned" about prediction markets and argued that some contracts are susceptible to manipulation.

"We're not a bunch of carnival barkers at a circus," Duffy said. "We are running the most envious markets in the world in the United States of America."

Duffy then took aim at the types of contracts Kalshi offers, mocking one in particular.