A number of cryptocurrency and blockchain associations advocating for the trade are pushing for a “immediate affirmation” of Brian Quintenz as chair of the US Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee (CFTC).
In a Wednesday letter to US President Donald Trump, representatives from a number of crypto organizations reiterated their help for Quintenz’s affirmation within the Senate following the president’s nomination.
Signatories included the Crypto Council for Innovation, Blockchain Affiliation, Decentralization Analysis Middle, DeFi Schooling Fund, The Digital Chamber, Satoshi Motion Fund and Solana Coverage Institute
The advocacy organizations argued that Quintenz was “exceptionally well-suited” to go the CFTC partly attributable to his expertise with and understanding of digital belongings.
After being nominated to chair the company in February, he was referred to the Senate Agriculture Committee, which delayed a vote days earlier than the chamber was scheduled to interrupt for an August recess.
The committee mentioned that the delay got here following a request from the White Home. An August report additionally prompt that Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss pressed Trump to reconsider Quintenz’s nomination, claiming he wouldn’t totally enact the president’s crypto agenda as CFTC chair.
“Because the Presidential Working Group on Digital Asset Markets Report clearly articulated, the CFTC has many vital, complicated, and nuanced objectives forward of it, together with working with Congress to ascertain a complete federal market construction framework with applicable oversight of digital asset commodities, so as to advance your Administration’s agenda,” mentioned the letter, including that:
Putting in a everlasting Chairman to the CFTC is totally vital to realizing these objectives […]”
Quintenz beforehand served as a CFTC commissioner below Trump from 2017 to 2021, having been nominated by former US President Barack Obama in 2016.
Associated: Trump’s CFTC chair pick won’t push president for bipartisan commission
Monetary regulator dealing with a employees exodus
Even when Quintenz’s affirmation had been to maneuver shortly by way of the Senate as soon as the chamber returns from recess on Sept. 3, the regulator nonetheless has vacancies that might sluggish its work associated to crypto and in any other case. At the moment, the five-member panel of commissioners is staffed solely by performing CFTC Chair Caroline Pham, and Commissioner Kristin Johnson.
Commissioners Summer season Mersinger and Christy Goldsmith Romero, in addition to former chair Rostin Behnam, departed the CFTC earlier this yr. Johnson mentioned she would go away earlier than 2026, and Pham mentioned she deliberate to maneuver to the non-public sector if Quintenz had been nominated, suggesting that the possible chair might be the only voice till Trump picked different candidates to employees the company.
In a press release to Cointelegraph, a consultant for the Crypto Council for Innovation highlighted the necessity to affirm CFTC management amid the two-commissioner panel, no everlasting chair, and pending laws for crypto market construction.
Senator Cynthia Lummis, one of many lead voices pushing for the chamber to go market construction, mentioned the invoice — which might make clear the roles the CFTC and Securities and Trade Fee could have over crypto — shall be signed into law earlier than 2026.
Journal: Bitcoin’s long-term security budget problem: Impending crisis or FUD?
