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Trump names four SEC and CFTC nominees, including Hester Peirce's successor and two Democrats
Summary
President Donald Trump on Thursday nominated four people to fill empty commissioner seats at the SEC and CFTC, the two main U.S. regulators of crypto markets, according to CoinDesk and Cointelegraph, citing the White House.
For the SEC he picked former CFTC Commissioner Kristin Johnson, a Democrat, and Steven Levine, a Republican who Cointelegraph says would take the seat left by crypto advocate Hester Peirce; for the CFTC he named Nathan Anonick and Matthew Rowland.
CoinDesk calls it the first time Trump has named nominees to either agency since 2025 and notes it is unusual because he had not nominated any Democrats to them until now.
All four need Senate confirmation, and Cointelegraph notes the picks come weeks before Democrats take control of the Senate in January.
Updates
- Update, : Added The Block: background on Anonick and Levine, and the Crypto Council for Innovation's reaction.
Key facts
- The SEC currently has two of its five seats filled, Chairman Paul Atkins and Commissioner Mark Uyeda, while CFTC Chairman Mike Selig is the sole member of his agency's five-seat commission.
- Levine was nominated for an SEC term ending June 5, 2030; Peirce, who led the SEC's Crypto Task Force, left the agency in October, and Levine's views on crypto are less publicly established.
- Johnson was nominated for the SEC seat held by Caroline Crenshaw, whose term has expired, with a proposed term ending June 5, 2029; she has pushed for stronger customer protections and conflict-of-interest rules for crypto firms.
- Anonick works for the Senate Agriculture Committee's majority staff and Rowland is a CFTC attorney detailed to that committee who previously worked on Johnson's staff, according to their LinkedIn profiles.
- Cointelegraph says Anonick (Republican) and Rowland (Democrat) both worked on the CLARITY Act, and Selig called them "two strong bipartisan picks."
- The Senate Banking Committee handles the SEC nominees and the Senate Agriculture Committee the CFTC nominees before a full Senate vote.
- The Block says Anonick is legislative counsel to Senate Agriculture Chairman John Boozman and was a lead negotiator on that committee's part of the CLARITY Act, Levine was most recently general counsel at the White House Council of Economic Advisers and earlier deputy chief of staff to SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda, and Crypto Council for Innovation CEO Ji Kim welcomed the bipartisan lineup.