While CFTC Awaits New Chairman, Acting Chief Pham Gets Rolling on Crypto

With the chairmanship still an open question for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission — likely to be a leading U.S. watchdog for crypto — its interim leader, Caroline Pham, is getting started on recommendations from the recent crypto report of the President's Working Group.

The CFTC, which regulates U.S. derivatives trading and would assume oversight of the bulk of U.S. crypto trading under Congress' market structure legislation, was at the center of key recommendations in the Trump administration report. So Pham, who President Donald Trump named acting chairman earlier this year, directed the agency to start taking industry input on meeting what's become "a top priority" of the White House.

"I am beginning stakeholder engagement on all other report recommendations for the CFTC with the full support of the President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets to operationalize President Trump’s promise to win on crypto," Pham said in a statement. The agency is formally requesting public comments on fulfilling the report's recommendations, opening a two-month window for input.

The CFTC is facing potential leadership drama, with Pham having said she's on her way out and the confirmation process to make former Commissioner Brian Quintenz the chairman deliberately delayed by the White House. Quintenz drew open criticism from Tyler Winklevoss, CEO of Gemini, who is among Trump's inner circle of favored crypto executives, but the bulk of the industry's lobbyists are asking the president to press for a quick approval of his nomination. For reasons it never detailed, the White House delayed what would have been a final committee vote to send Quintenz's confirmation to the Senate floor, it's reportedly still backing him.

After that stitch in his confirmation, the Senate went on its August break, further forestalling the resolution of the CFTC chairmanship, with Pham poised to leave and the only other sitting commissioner — Democrat Kristin Johnson — also planning to go. Even if Quintenz is quickly confirmed after the Senate's summer recess, he may take over an otherwise empty five-member commission.

Meanwhile, Pham said the CFTC's renewed crypto effort is meant to operate alongside "Project Crypto" recently announced by Paul Atkins, the Trump-appointed chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. This is a followup to the "crypto sprint" that Pham most recently promised on Aug. 1.

Read More: U.S. CFTC Considers Allowing Spot Crypto Trading on Registered Futures Exchanges