Nivedita Sathiakumar

Nivedita Sathiakumar is a regulatory attorney with significant experience in financial market oversight, derivatives regulation, and administrative law. She most recently served as special counsel in the Division of Market Oversight at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), where she advised senior leadership on legal, policy, and regulatory matters affecting CFTC-regulated entities, including designated contract markets and swap execution facilities. Her work focused on evaluating complex trading systems, reviewing registration applications, and shaping regulatory approaches to emerging market structures, including digital asset trading venues and innovative financial products. She also evaluated requests for no action relief and assisted in drafting responses to innovation exemption requests.

Nivedita has experience evaluating novel market structure proposals, swaps and futures data reporting procedures, and trade incentive and market maker programs in the crypto asset and prediction markets space, in addition to energy, perpetual style futures, equity index, and other commodity assets. She worked on matters related to intermediaries and designated clearing organizations, assisted in issuing division guidance, and advised on terms of proposed rulemakings.

Prior to joining the Division of Market Oversight, Nivedita served as an attorney adviser at the Social Security Administration (SSA), where she recommended and drafted administrative and appellate decisions. While in law school, Nivedita gained experience across several federal financial and legislative institutions, including the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission; the U.S. Department of the Treasury; and the CFTC's Division of Enforcement.

Nivedita volunteers with legal advice clinics and the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress.