Trump Nominates Bipartisan Slate for SEC and CFTC
The White House paired a Democrat and a Republican for each agency, racing a lame-duck window before Democrats take the Senate.
Crypto's two main US regulators could soon get fuller benches. On Nov. 12th, the White House sent the Senate four nominees: one Democrat and one Republican each for the SEC and the CFTC.
They're the first Democrats Trump has nominated to either agency in his second term. They also land in a short lame-duck window before Democrats take the Senate in January.
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What's the Scoop?
The SEC picks: Democrat Kristin Johnson was a CFTC commissioner from 2022 to 2025 and now teaches law at George Washington University. Republican Steven Levine is a longtime counsel to Commissioner Mark Uyeda. They'd join Chair Paul Atkins and Uyeda, who are currently the agency's only members.
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The CFTC picks: Republican Nathan Anonick is Senate Ag Chair John Boozman's lead counsel on CFTC and crypto policy. Democrat Matthew Rowland is a career CFTC lawyer on loan to the committee. Both worked on the Ag committee's half of the stalled CLARITY Act. Chair Mike Selig has been the CFTC's only commissioner since last December.
A prediction market skeptic: Johnson used her 2025 CFTC farewell speech to warn of "too few guardrails" in prediction markets. At the SEC, she'd be the lone Democrat. Rowland once worked as senior counsel in her CFTC office.
Racing the clock: Senate Banking has set a Nov. 19th hearing for Johnson and Levine, and Senate Ag hasn't scheduled the CFTC pair yet. Any nominations still pending when the new Congress starts on Jan. 3rd go back to the White House. That's what happened to Johnson's 2024 Treasury nomination.
The math: If all four are confirmed, the SEC would have three Republicans, one Democrat, and one vacancy. The CFTC would have two Republicans, one Democrat, and two vacancies. Republicans keep control of both.
Zooming out: Rules passed by a fuller, bipartisan commission are harder to challenge in court, or to roll back later, than rules from a commission of one. That matters while the CFTC fights states over prediction markets and the SEC weighs stock perps.
William M. Peaster
William M. Peaster, Senior Writer, has been with Bankless since January 2021. Immersed in Ethereum since 2017, he covers the onchain frontier with a particular interest in art, games, and other culture apps. He has a background in creative writing and writes fiction in his free time.
