White House sends crypto-relevant picks to fill SEC and CFTC seats

The White House nominated four individuals to fill vacant seats at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, making the first such nominations in roughly a year.

Nathan Anonick of Virginia and Matthew Rowland of the District of Columbia were nominated to be commissioners of the CFTC. Kristin N. Johnson of Michigan and Steven Levine of Maryland were nominated to be members of the SEC.

The nominations are bipartisan — Anonick and Levine are Republicans; Johnson and Rowland are Democrats. The Senate Agriculture Committee will consider the CFTC nominees, while the Senate Banking Committee will consider the SEC nominees.

Backgrounds

Anonick currently serves as legislative counsel to Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman and worked as a lead negotiator on the Agriculture Committee's portion of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act. Rowland is a CFTC attorney who has been detailed to the Senate Agriculture Committee and also worked on the Clarity Act and the 2024 Agriculture Committee crypto bill.

Meanwhile, Johnson, a former CFTC commissioner, focused on digital assets, risk management, and market integrity. Johnson has spoken often about crypto and the need for regulations around crypto asset custody, DeFi, and AI.

Levine most recently served as General Counsel and a senior advisor at the White House Council of Economic Advisers, and previously worked at the SEC as counsel and deputy chief of staff to Commissioner Mark Uyeda. 

Levine was nominated to succeed Hester Peirce, a vocal advocate for the crypto industry who led the agency's Crypto Task Force and assisted Chairman Paul Atkins' Project Crypto to modernize securities regulation to accommodate crypto innovation and advance the goal of making the U.S. the "crypto capital of the world."

Ji Kim, chief executive of the Crypto Council for Innovation, congratulated the nominees in a post on X, stating that strong, bipartisan representation is essential to developing durable rules that safeguard markets, protect consumers, and support innovation.

"Both the CFTC and SEC will continue to play central and consequential roles in our financial markets, and together these nominees bring a wealth of experience and expertise that will help ensure continued American leadership," Kim wrote.