Caroline Pham appointed as Acting CFTC Chair by President Trump

President Donald Trump has reportedly picked republican commissioner Caroline Pham to serve as the acting chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Fox Business journalist Eleanor Terret confirmed the development on X after an earlier report from Bloomberg.

Pham’s appointment follows the exit of the former chair, Rostin Benham, a Democrat who said he would step down from the chair role by January 20 before exiting the agency by February 7. With Benham officially stepping down, Bloomberg reported that five members of the CFTC voted to make Pham the acting chair.

The appointment of Pham, even in an acting capacity, has been welcomed with excitement in the crypto community. This is likely due to Pham’s antecedents as a pro-crypto regulator calling for regulatory clarity for the industry, including proposing a regulatory sandbox for crypto companies to test products.

Pham, appointed as a CFTC commissioner by former President Joe Biden in 2021, served on the staff of CTFC and worked at Citi Bank before becoming CFTC commissioner. Following her appointment, several stakeholders in the crypto sector have highlighted her openness to engaging with crypto companies.

Uniswap Labs CEO Hayden Adams congratulated her on the appointment, noting that it is an important role because most tokens are commodities. Adams quoted a Pham post from 2022 showing her tour of Uniswap.

He wrote:

“Caroline was early to learning about DeFi and wrote a fantastic dissent in our CFTC settlement Important role as most tokens are commodities – I think she’ll be a great leader.”

Interestingly, during the 2022 tour, Pham also visited several other crypto companies in the US, including Ripple.

Who will become the next CFTC chair?

With Pham selected to serve in an acting capacity, she will occupy the role of CFTC chair until Trump announces a permanent chair and the Senate confirms that appointment. Interestingly, Pham is one of the names in the running to become the CFTC chair.

Others, such as senior Republican commissioner at CFTC Summer Mersinger, current a16z crypto head of policy, and former CFTC commissioner Brian Quintenz, are also in the running. However, even in an acting capacity, Pham’s appointment suggests she might be a top choice for the permanent position.

This would not come as a surprise and aligns with Trump’s commitment to appoint pro-crypto experts to head regulatory agencies that might have dealings with the digital assets industry. The CFTC is one of the leading regulators for crypto, and many stakeholders favor the agency because they consider cryptocurrencies commodities rather than securities.

Crypto market plunge as BTC crashes to $103,000

Meanwhile, the news of Trump selecting Pham as acting CFTC chair was not enough to lift the market higher on inauguration day, as the cryptocurrencies saw a 2.33% decline in market cap. The drop in value was led by Bitcoin, which fell from its peak today of $107,000 to around $104,000.

Following the BTC plunge, other assets also followed, with Ethereum declining by 3% to $3,320 while Solana dropped $249, losing 8% of its value. The poor performance of digital assets today is due to President Trump’s failure to mention Bitcoin or crypto during his inauguration speech.

Expectations about what his first day in office would mean for BTC and crypto were high, with some people expecting that he would sign an executive order to create a Bitcoin Strategic Reserve. However, the lack of any reference to crypto in his speech or the document titled “President Trump’s America First Priorities” has disappointed many in the industry.

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