Caroline Pham is replacing CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam as the acting CFTC Chair as the Trump administration has yet to announce a permanent Chairman for the agency.
The pro-crypto administration of Donald Trump is gradually taking shape with another name dropping out—Caroline Pham, named as the acting chair for the United States Commodity and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) under Trump. Pham is currently one of the commissioners of the CFTC, nominated by the now-former US President, Joe Biden.
Five members of the CFTC, a prominent agency under which crypto derivatives and commodities like Bitcoin come, voted to confirm Pham’s nomination by the new US president, confirming a report from Bloomberg on Monday, citing sources with the knowledge of the matter. Notably, Trump’s administration does not have a permanent CFTC chair.
A Great Record
It is important to note that in 2023 Pham had called for the development of a “regulatory sandbox.” It would be responsible for the creation of a crypto regulatory framework and also start a pilot program for cryptocurrencies at a later stage. The pilot program would work towards establishing a “safe framework for emerging technologies and market structures.”
As one of the Commissioners at CFTC, Pham has led a number of initiatives for cryptocurrencies. Pham introduced a Digital Assets Markets subcommittee. The subcommittee’s task is to make recommendations for the governance and risk, along with proposing a sound regulatory framework for virtual currencies.
Interestingly, along with Pham, another Republican with strong ties to Trump’s inner circle, Summer Mersinger, was being pictured as the acting CFTC chair. Now, it seems that sources have cleared the air on Trump’s choice.
CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam Steps Down
As of today, Rostin Behnam is no longer the chair of the CFTC and has confirmed that his final day at the agency will be on February 7th. Under Behnam, the CFTC took actions against defunct exchange FTX, resulting in a whopping $12.7 billion in restitution and disgorgement—the largest recovery in the CFTC’s history.
Behnam’s CFTC also led a massive lawsuit against the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance and its founder, Changpeng Zhao. The exchange was fined $1.35 billion, and Zhao had to personally pay $150 million. However, overall, Behnam’s CFTC wasn’t as strict on crypto as Gary Gensler’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Trump’s administration already has some big names joining him on January 20th. The United States’ first pro-crypto president announced that Paul Atkins, the former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins, would now be the new Chairman of the agency. Also, pro-Bitcoin and a hedge fund billionaire, Scott Bessent, was confirmed as the new US Treasury Secretary.
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