Trump transition team considers current, former CFTC officials for agency chair

By Hannah Lang, Michelle Price and Chris Prentice

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Officials on President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team are considering current and former Commodity Futures Trading Commission officials for chair of the agency, according to four people with knowledge of the matter. 

While the derivatives market regulator has traditionally been seen as a junior player in financial policy, it is likely to play a more prominent role as Trump’s Republican administration starts to overhaul cryptocurrency regulations next year. 

Among those under consideration for CFTC chair is Summer Mersinger, a Republican CFTC commissioner who has defended crypto firms in the face of enforcement actions and advocated for the agency to write rules of the road for the crypto industry, three of the people said. 

Mersinger is currently seen as the frontrunner, in part because she was a top aide to Republican Senator John Thune from 2004 to 2016, two said. Senate Republicans on Wednesday elected Thune to lead the chamber next year. 

Also in the mix for CFTC chair is former Republican CFTC commissioner Jill Sommers, who currently works at Washington consultancy Patomak Global Partners, and Josh Sterling, partner at law firm Milbank and a former CFTC official, three of the people said. 

The situation is fluid and the transition team is not expected to start deciding on financial agency nominations this week, said one of the above sources and a fourth person with knowledge of the matter. They added that those announcements will likely come after Trump chooses a Treasury secretary. 

The CFTC currently comprises five politically appointed commissioners: three Democrats and two Republicans.

Caroline Pham, the other Republican CFTC commissioner, is also a possible contender and keen for the job, two of the people said. She has called for the agency to create a program to support the development of digital asset companies. 

Mersinger and Pham declined to comment through spokespeople on Thursday. Sterling, Sommers and a CFTC spokesperson also declined to comment. Politico first reported earlier on Thursday that the four were in the running. 

“President-Elect Trump is making decisions on who will serve in his second Administration. Those decisions will be announced when they are made,” Karoline Leavitt, Trump transition spokeswoman, told Reuters via email. 

President Joe Biden’s regulators have sued multiple crypto companies, arguing they are violating U.S. securities, derivatives trading and anti-money-laundering laws. Crypto companies say the rules are not appropriate for their industry, and have lobbied for Congress to create a new framework overseen by the CFTC.

Trump courted crypto cash with promises to be a “crypto president,” and the industry is pushing for his administration to make good on a raft of promised policies that would end that crackdown and promote the widespread adoption of digital assets. 

Transition team officials are discussing how to put those policies into action, and are taking advice from prominent crypto industry executives, two of the people said. 

Among them are former CFTC Chair Heath Tarbert, who is chief legal officer at stablecoin issuer Circle, and former Republican CFTC commissioner Brian Quintenz, who is head of policy for a16z crypto, the crypto venture funds of Andreessen Horowitz, the people said. 

Tarbert declined to comment through a Circle spokesperson. Quintenz did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Hannah Lang and Michelle Price in Washington and Chris Prentice in New York; Additional reporting by Douglas Gillison and Pete Schroeder in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis)