President Donald Trump has chosen Michael Selig to head the CFTC, replacing his earlier pick Brian Quintenz, whose nomination collapsed under pressure from Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, owners of crypto platform Gemini.
Selig, who currently serves as chief counsel for the SEC’s crypto task force, has spent recent years working alongside SEC Chairman Paul Atkins, helping the SEC and CFTC stay on the same page when it comes to crypto rules and overlapping financial oversight.
Before landing that job, Selig was a partner at Willkie Farr & Gallagher, where he worked in their asset management practice. He still needs to be confirmed by the Senate, which isn’t likely to act until after the shutdown ends.
Brian Quintenz gets blocked after Winklevoss push
Trump’s first nominee, Brian Quintenz, was once a CFTC commissioner and was most recently heading a16z crypto’s global policy arm. But his nomination hit a wall after Tyler personally asked Trump to kill the confirmation.
Right after that request, the White House released a public statement in July saying it still supported Brian for the job, despite the growing tension. Not long after that statement, the administration asked the Senate Agriculture Committee, which has oversight of the CFTC, to pause the confirmation vote.
The tension kept growing. Earlier this month, Brian posted on social media that Trump “might have been misled” by the Winklevosses. He even shared screenshots of direct messages between him and Tyler from back in July.
The messages showed that Tyler was pushing to delay the nomination before Brian’s Senate hearing was paused. It became clear that there was deep disagreement, and the administration had to pick someone else before the whole process turned into a circus.
All of this is unfolding while the U.S. government remains in its third week of a shutdown, triggered by Congress failing to pass funding before the September 30 deadline.
The shutdown is the second-longest ever and has slashed staffing at the country’s top market watchdogs. The SEC is operating with just 393 people out of 4,289, and the CFTC is running with only 31 out of 543.
Still, both agencies are trying to hit crypto oversight goals by year-end. But the delay is already rattling nerves across the industry. The Blockchain Association said the longer this goes on, the worse the uncertainty gets. They warned it could lead to more chaos in the market.
Meanwhile, the legislation that would clarify what role the CFTC plays in crypto still hangs in limbo; waiting on votes, budgets, and now, a new chair.
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