As US President, Donald Trump is the only person under federal law who can nominate replacements to fill the empty SEC and CFTC leadership seats. However, the White House has not announced any nominations or intention to nominate additional members to the financial agencies, all of whom were chosen by Trump with the exception of Uyeda, a Biden pick from 2022.
Cointelegraph reached out to the SEC and CFTC for comment on any potential nominations but did not receive an immediate response. A White House official said that Trump intended to nominate members to both agencies “in the near future.“ A CNBC report from Sept. 4 said that White House officials had been vetting four candidates to fill the empty commissioner seats at the CFTC, but did not mention any names.
“Congress designed these boards and commissions to be bipartisan and gave them the authority to regulate some of the most vital and significant parts of American life,“ said Senate Democrats in a June letter to Trump and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, referring to the SEC, CFTC and other departments. “But the Trump Administration appears intent on ensuring that it retains complete control over these agencies, with little interest in working in good faith with Congress.“
Three commissioners regulating crypto without CLARITY
Without full leadership, both financial agencies continue to advance crypto regulation through rulemaking rather than laws passed by Congress. Many in the industry had been pushing US lawmakers to pass the Digital Asset Clarity (CLARITY) Act earlier this month, but the bill failed in the Republican-controlled Senate.
The CLARITY Act was expected to give the CFTC more authority over digital asset regulation in roles now held by the SEC. Without the bill’s passage from Congress, both agencies have announced different ways of interpreting federal laws as applied to token issuers, from the SEC issuing staff guidance on investment contracts to the CFTC specifying how companies could use blockchain recordkeeping.
