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One of 2 Remaining Democrats at U.S. CFTC Will Exit When New Chair Arrives
As the crypto industry awaits a surge in digital assets authority at the U.S. derivatives agency, Democrat Christy Goldsmith Romero plans to depart.
What to know:
- Christy Goldsmith Romero, a Democrat commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and a recent rising star in Democratic circles, will leave the agency when the new chairman arrives.
- When Brian Quintenz, President Donald Trump's nominee to take over the CFTC, gets a U.S. Senate nod, Goldsmith Romero will exit and leave Commissioner Kristin Johnson as the sole Democrat there.
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) could have an even stronger Republican majority when the chairman picked by President Donald Trump arrives, with the announcement on Wednesday that Democratic Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero will step down after that expected confirmation.
If Trump nominee Brian Quintenz, a former Republican commissioner at the agency, is approved by the U.S. Senate, the Democrat's exit will leave just Commissioner Kristin Johnson to represent the agency's minority party. This leadership shift would take place at a particularly meaningful moment for the agency, when its expected leading role in crypto is being worked out in Congress and past resistance to the industry is being stripped away with the already active overhaul of CFTC personnel.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
"History has shown how sound regulation plays a critical role in U.S. financial markets being the envy of the world, and I am honored to have played a part in promoting U.S. markets and protecting investors and customers," Goldsmith Romero said in a statement, noting she'll be ending a 23-year career in the federal government that also included prominent roles at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Treasury Department.
Commissioner Johnson declined to discuss her fellow Democrat's plans.
The agency's acting chairman, Caroline Pham, praised the departing commissioner as "a thought leader in combatting fraud and addressing cybersecurity in new technologies such as AI and blockchain as sponsor of the CFTC’s Technology Advisory Committee," in a statement.
The federal career path of Goldsmith Romero, noted as the first LGBTQ+ commissioner at the CFTC, shifted markedly after Trump's victory, because she'd previously been President Joe Biden's pick to run the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission, though the Senate never got around to voting on her nomination.
Update (Feb. 26, 2025, 21:00 UTC): Adds detail about the end of Goldsmith Romero's term.
Jesse Hamilton
Jesse Hamilton is CoinDesk's deputy managing editor on the Global Policy and Regulation team, based in Washington, D.C. Before joining CoinDesk in 2022, he worked for more than a decade covering Wall Street regulation at Bloomberg News and Businessweek, writing about the early whisperings among federal agencies trying to decide what to do about crypto. He’s won several national honors in his reporting career, including from his time as a war correspondent in Iraq and as a police reporter for newspapers. Jesse is a graduate of Western Washington University, where he studied journalism and history. He has no crypto holdings.
