US President Donald Trump reportedly plans to select Brian Quintenz — the head of policy for the crypto subsidiary of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) — as chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Trump’s intention to pick Quintenz as the next head of the CFTC was revealed in a document sent by the White House to Capitol Hill, Bloomberg reported on Feb. 12.
If Quintenz is confirmed to head the CFTC, it’s widely expected that he will push for pro-crypto policy moves and establish his agency as the primary regulator for the crypto industry over the Securities and Exchange Commission.
According to the same document, Trump nominated Jonathan Gould, a partner at global law firm Jones Day, as the Comptroller of Currency, heading the agency that regulates all US national banks.
Additionally, the document revealed that Trump has tapped Jonathan McKernan — who resigned from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp on Feb. 11 — as the new permanent head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Brian Quintenz’s history at the CFTC
Quintenz formerly served as a Republican commissioner of the CFTC during the first Trump administration between 2016 and 2020.
During his tenure at the CFTC, he heavily backed the integration of digital asset derivatives and crypto products into the federal agency’s regulatory framework.
Quintenz during his CFTC tenure under Trump’s last administration. Source: CFTC
In March, Quintenz criticized the Gensler-led SEC for how it dealt with the legal status of Ether (ETH).
He slammed the regulator for its inconsistent treatment of Ether, claiming the SEC had “explicitly acknowledged” that ETH was a non-security asset in October 2023 when it approved Ether futures exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Quintenz said that “if the SEC had any doubt about the regulatory treatment of ETH […] it wouldn’t have approved the ETF,” adding that if the asset were a security, the CFTC-listed future contracts “would be illegal.”
In November, a16z said that it expects “greater flexibility to experiment” following the crypto regulatory shakeup under the new Trump administration.
A16z stands as one of the largest venture capital investment firms in the crypto industry, funding hundreds of crypto startups, including Maker — now Sky — Solana, Avalanche, Aptos, EigenLayer, Lido, Nansen, OpenSea, Coinbase and many others.
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