Brian Quintenz’s hopes of leading the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) are over.
Multiple outlets, led by Politico, confirmed late Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s administration has abandoned the idea of nominating Quintenz to chair the federal derivatives regulator.
“Being nominated to chair the CFTC and going through the confirmation process was the honor of my life,” Quintenz told Politico. “I am grateful to the President for that opportunity and to the Senate Agriculture Committee for its consideration.”
The White House official said that Quintenz remains “a trusted ally” and that the Trump administration looks forward to working with him in other capacities. It will announce a new nominee in the near future.
Signs pointed in this direction
The process of vetting Quintenz as potential CFTC chief had stalled in recent months after a Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee hearing nearly four months ago. His nomination never received a formal vote in the committee that would have sent the issue to the full Senate floor, and Politico reports that the White House asked the committee to delay a scheduled meeting that may have voted on the nomination.
That came after crypto billionaires Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss reportedly urged Trump to reconsider his choice in July, asserting that Quintenz had too conservative a stance on crypto and was not progressive enough to lead the CFTC. “The Trump Administration wants to cut red tape and deregulate. This nominee continues to advocate for dramatically increasing budgets and overregulation that will lead to regulatory capture,” Tyler Winklevoss told CoinDesk in an interview published Aug. 1.
Quintenz later pushed back publicly by posting what he said were private texts from Tyler Winklevoss on social media, arguing that the twins had misled Trump about his positions.
Quintenz faced Senate scrutiny, gaming opposition
Quintenz told Politico that he looks forward to returning to his private-sector work now that he is no longer up for the top regulatory job.
Quintenz has been on the board of Kalshi since 2021 and was an advisor to Crypto.com from 2021-22. vowed in a letter to the CFTC’s Office of the General Counsel in May that he would step down from his Kalshi role if he were to be confirmed as CFTC Chair, as well as yielding any stock options he holds and recusing himself from proceedings involving Kalshi to avoid a potential conflict of interest.
At that June hearing, he was grilled by committee members about his views on CFTC-regulated prediction markets offering sports event contracts, among other things. His past and current roles within the cryptocurrency and derivatives space also got some scrutiny. Senators expressed misgivings, suggesting that his roles in the sector could throw his impartiality into doubt.
His nomination was also questioned by the American Gaming Association (AGA) and numerous tribal and other gaming associations in a letter sent to the committee in July. Nevada representative and Congressional Gaming Caucus Co-Chair Dina Titus also voiced concerns over his potential nomination. On Tuesday, she celebrated the news that he would not be the chosen one.
So, who’s next?
Reports suggest that among the potential replacement nominees to lead the CFTC, which currently has only Acting Chair Caroline Pham after several commissioner exits, several names are emerging as leading contenders:
- Former CFTC Commissioner Jill Sommers
- Securities and Exchange Commission’s crypto taskforce chief counsel Mike Selig
- Tyler Williams, a Galaxy Digital executive and digital asset advisor to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent
- Lawyer Josh Sterling, who has represented Kalshi this year in several court battles with states, as well as at industry events
There’s a long way to go, but whoever ultimately takes up the position will have to clarify and build upon the CFTC’s stance on sports trading. The CFTC issued its first public communication on sports event contracts on Tuesday, at around the same time that the Quintenz news was breaking.
