Senate panel advances Trump’s pick to chair key crypto regulator

The Senate Agriculture Committee on Thursday voted to advance President Trump’s new pick to lead the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), a low-profile agency that is poised to take on a key role regulating cryptocurrency. 

The panel voted 12-11 along partisan lines to send Mike Selig’s nomination to the Senate floor, just one day after he appeared before senators for a relatively quiet confirmation hearing. 

Selig, who currently serves as chief counsel to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) crypto task force, was nominated for the new role in October after the White House withdrew its previous candidate. 

Trump initially tapped Brian Quintenz, global head of policy at a16z crypto and a former CFTC commissioner, to chair the agency in February. Quintenz appeared before the Senate Agriculture Committee in June, and his confirmation appeared to be proceeding apace. 

However, the panel scrapped a vote on Quintenz’s nomination in late July at the request of the White House, which was reportedly facing pressure from crypto billionaires Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss to reconsider its choice. 

In early September, Quintenz shot back at the Winklevoss twins publicly, releasing a series of messages between himself and the brothers and suggesting that Trump “might have been misled.” The White House ultimately withdrew his nomination later that month. 

The drawn-out effort to fill the top role at the CFTC comes as the agency, which is typically led by a five-person commission, is currently operating with only an acting chair after a slew of departures earlier this year. 

Acting Chair Caroline Pham also intends to leave the agency once her successor is confirmed.  

The state of the CFTC was a key concern for Democrats at Selig’s confirmation hearing Wednesday, as lawmakers continue to wrestle with legislation that would hand over a large chunk of crypto regulation to the agency. 

“I believe it’s in the public interest that the CFTC not only have a confirmed chairman, but also a fully functioning commission, and that would include, of course, a Democratic appointee, in fact, two Democratic appointees,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), the committee’s ranking member, said. 

“The CFTC has operated much of the past year without a full complement of bipartisan commissioners and has been operating for months with only an acting chairman,” she added. “This uncertainty surrounding the leadership at the CFTC has only created more chaos for people who rely on the CFTC.” 

Several Senate Democrats pressed the CFTC nominee about whether the agency would need more resources. Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) underscored that the CFTC is poised to take on “an enormous new duty” but remains small compared with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is also set to oversee crypto markets. 

Selig deferred making an assessment on the need for more resources, saying he would evaluate the situation once confirmed.