The White House on Thursday sent four nominations for the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to the Senate, including a replacement for former SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, one of the agency’s most prominent crypto advocates. The bipartisan slate would partly refill two commissions that have been running well short of their five seats, but the picks arrive in a lame-duck Senate weeks before Democrats take control of the chamber in January.
Who was nominated
According to the White House nominations list, the four picks are:
- Steven Levine, of Maryland, to be an SEC member for a term expiring June 5, 2030, in the seat Peirce held.
- Kristin N. Johnson, of Michigan, to be an SEC member for a term expiring June 5, 2029, replacing Caroline Crenshaw.
- Nathan Anonick, of Virginia, to be a CFTC commissioner for a term expiring June 19, 2031, in the seat once held by former Chairman Rostin Behnam.
- Matthew Rowland, of the District of Columbia, to be a CFTC commissioner for the rest of a term that ends April 13, 2028, replacing Summer Mersinger.
Levine and Anonick are Republicans, while Johnson and Rowland are Democrats. Levine most recently served as general counsel and a senior adviser at the White House Council of Economic Advisers and earlier worked at the SEC as counsel and deputy chief of staff to Commissioner Mark Uyeda, The Block reported. Johnson is a former CFTC commissioner appointed under President Joe Biden.
Two CLARITY Act negotiators for the CFTC
The CFTC picks come straight from the Senate committee that wrote its share of the crypto market structure bill. Anonick is legislative counsel to Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman and was a lead negotiator on the committee’s part of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act. Rowland is a CFTC attorney detailed to the same committee who also worked on the CLARITY Act and the committee’s 2024 crypto bill, according to The Block. CoinDesk reported that Rowland previously worked on Johnson’s staff at the CFTC.
That matters because the CFTC has had a single commissioner, Chairman Mike Selig, which means the commission’s recent decisions, including those on crypto, have been made with no other commissioners at the table. We looked at how far that has gone in our piece on how the CFTC is writing crypto market rules the Senate could not pass. Selig called Anonick and Rowland “two strong bipartisan picks” and said he looked forward to working with them once confirmed, Cointelegraph reported.
Peirce’s seat and the SEC’s crypto stance
At the SEC, only Chairman Paul Atkins and Commissioner Mark Uyeda remain after Peirce left in October. Peirce led the agency’s Crypto Task Force and was a leading advocate for clearer crypto rules. Levine’s public record on crypto is thin by comparison, so his confirmation hearing will be the first real look at how he would approach the task force’s unfinished work.
Johnson brings a different profile. At the CFTC she pushed for stronger customer protections and conflict-of-interest rules for crypto firms, and she has spoken often about custody, DeFi and AI. If both SEC nominees are confirmed, Republicans would hold three of four filled seats, keeping their majority under Atkins while adding a Democratic voice for the first time since Crenshaw’s departure.
The pairing itself is a break from recent practice. Until now, the administration had not nominated Democrats to either commission, CoinDesk noted. By law, no more than three of the five commissioners at either agency can come from the same party, which makes cross-party pairs a common way to move nominees through the Senate together.
A short window
The SEC nominees go to the Senate Banking Committee and the CFTC nominees to the Senate Agriculture Committee before any floor vote. Republicans are set to lose control of the Senate in January after last week’s midterm results, according to Reuters, so the current majority has only weeks to hold hearings and votes if it wants to confirm the slate on its own terms. Nominations that are not confirmed by the end of the session are normally returned to the president and would have to be sent again to the new Senate.
For crypto firms, the outcome affects how rules get made at both agencies next year, from prediction markets at the CFTC, where Kalshi recently disclosed a warning over its contract filings, to token and custody guidance at the SEC.
FAQ
Who did Trump nominate to replace Hester Peirce at the SEC?
Steven Levine, a Republican who most recently served as general counsel at the White House Council of Economic Advisers, was nominated for the seat, with a term expiring June 5, 2030.
Who are the CFTC nominees?
Republican Nathan Anonick and Democrat Matthew Rowland, who both work with the Senate Agriculture Committee (Rowland on detail from the CFTC) and worked on the CLARITY Act. CFTC Chairman Mike Selig is currently the agency’s only commissioner.
When could the SEC and CFTC nominees be confirmed?
The Senate Banking and Agriculture committees must hold hearings and votes before the full Senate can confirm them, and the current Republican majority ends in January.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
