Brian Quintenz, crypto-friendly CFTC commissioner, to leave office at end of August

Brian Quintenz, a commissioner for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has announced that August 31 will be his final day in office.

Quintenz has been a notable crypto advocate for the duration of his term. In his statement upon departure, he highlighted his work on cryptocurrency issues.

"During my term, the CFTC has overseen the listing of Bitcoin futures contracts; the custody of digital assets within the traditional clearing infrastructure; the proliferation of blockchain technology; the creation of cryptographic, tokenized commodities; and the rapid expansion of decentralized finance (DeFi), which purports to realize the ultimate transparency-competition-innovation-reward dynamic of a true free market."

On Wednesday, Quintenz tweeted a question about how to qualify fraud in DeFi, a question that both the CFTC and sister regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission has been debating hotly. 

Initially nominated by President Obama and confirmed under President Trump, Quintenz's term expired last year, which resulted in some back and forth as to when he would actually be stepping down amid a change in administrations. Quintenz ultimately continued under President Biden.

Reports emerged earlier this week that Biden was planning to nominate acting CFTC Chair Rostim Behnem to serve as full chair.