By Hannah Lang
(Reuters) – U.S. senators are expected to press Michael Selig, President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, on Wednesday over his plans to overhaul regulations on cryptocurrencies and election betting, among other hot-button issues.
Selig currently serves as chief counsel to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Crypto Task Force and is an advisor to Trump’s Republican SEC Chairman Paul Atkins.
Trump courted cryptocurrencies on the campaign trail by promising to be a “cryptocurrency president” and his administration pushed industry-friendly policies, dropped investigations into cryptocurrency companies and enacted a new regulatory framework for stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency pegged to the U.S. dollar. The Trump family is also building a crypto business.
The CFTC, which oversees commodity derivatives markets, would also take a more active role in overseeing the crypto industry if Congress passes a bill, dubbed the CLARITY Act, that includes proposed changes in crypto market oversight.
The White House withdrew its previous nominee to head the CFTC, former Republican CFTC Commissioner Brian Quintenz, who said in September that influential crypto entrepreneurs Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss had urged Trump to delay his nomination. The two men, who donated to Trump’s campaign, did not comment on Quintenz’s statement.
Selig, in an article on X after his nomination, said he would “help the president make the United States the crypto capital of the world.”
The CLARITY Act, passed by the House of Representatives in July and currently under consideration in the Senate, would clarify a long-standing debate by defining when a cryptocurrency is considered a commodity or a security. This would give the CFTC the power to oversee crypto spot markets.
Selig is expected to be asked about that bill, as well as how the CFTC would work with the SEC and oversee markets that allow Americans to bet on the outcome of elections and other events.
The CFTC is traditionally run by a bipartisan group of five commissioners appointed by the president. The agency currently has only one commissioner, Republican Caroline Pham, who also serves as interim president. Pham said she plans to leave the agency once Trump’s candidacy for president is confirmed.
(Reporting by Hannah Lang in New York; editing by Michelle Price and Edmund Klamann)
