The US Crypto Industry’s potential primary watchdog, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has a staffing problem at the top, with the last of his sitting commissioners announcing his departure plans before arriving by the agency’s chairman elected by President Donald Trump.
Democrat Kristen Johnson is now joined by the other three sitting commissioners to make her departure plans clear Wednesday, leaving Trump’s election to lead the agency – former commissioner Brian Quintenz – potentially run an empty commission.
If the Senate is confirmed by the Senate, Quintenz will take over the place currently occupied by Christy Goldsmith Romero, a Democrat who said she is planning to leave at the end of this month, whether Quintenz arrives or not. Since Johnson said she would leave “later in the year,” she may be able to serve from Quintenz for a while in a one-on-one-Republican-democratic faceoff there.
Johnson, who was installed in the Five Member Commission for a partial period that recently expired, had the opportunity to remain on the agency until she was replaced. She did not immediately respond to a request for more clarity by her departure stiming.
The Commission’s two sitting Republicans also have exit plans where Summer Mersinger takes over the Blockchain Association, a crypto lobbying and acting chairman Caroline Pham, who intends to go back to an unspecified role in the private sector when Quintenz takes over.
That’s the end of the list of current commissioners, which means Quintenz could be left alone on top of the US derivative markets, unless Trump makes some quick nominations and the Senate responds quickly. So far, the legislators have moved relatively slowly on Quintenz as opposed to CFTC’s sister agency, Securities and Exchange Commission, which is already continuing under the leadership of Trump Paul Atkins.
CFTC had been down to two commissioners in recent years during the former chairman Rostin Behnam, and the four current commissioners were sworn within a few weeks in order for 2022 to fill the guard schedule. Under the law, the Agency may operate without its full complement to commissioners, but legal observers have previously argued that a single remaining commissioner from a party could face legal challenges in an attempt to implement a unilateral agenda.
The Derivatives The regulator is probably the leading watchdog of American crypto activity under legislation considered in Congress to establish a domestic supervisory regime. While the demand for the agency to design crypto rules may not come for a while, any confusion or legal uncertainty may be problematic on top of CFTC.
Johnson, who had taken a three-year leave from Emory University School of Law to match the time left in the expression she entered, concentrated much of her color declaration on artificial intelligence work. But she also referred to Crypto.
“I urged the Commission to start a dialogue with several stakeholders in markets for digital asset that would help prepare Commission staff to set up regulation to conduct a congress mandate and at the same time offer training workshops on basic issues such as business management, decision planning and customer protection functions in CFTC regulation,” she said.
Read more: CFTC Commissioner Mersinger to be CEO of the Blockchain Association
