One of 2 Remaining Democrats at U.S. CFTC Will Exit When New Chair Arrives

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.

“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, telling CoinDesk, “I don’t want to comment on something that is still developing.”

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.