Critical Role Expected for Bitcoin and Altcoins! Here are 6 possible candidates to replace the CFTC Chairman!

Recently, the Chairman of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Rostin Behnam announced that he will resign on January 20, the day Donald Trump takes office.

While Trump is expected to take office after his retirement, the cryptocurrency industry is closely following Trump's decision to name the next CFTC chairman.

At this point, it appears that Donald Trump's transition team has met with at least six candidates for the CFTC presidency as part of Trump's promise to deliver on a promise for a crypto-friendly regulatory environment.

Trump's transition team has explored at least half a dozen potential candidates to narrow it down, Fox Business correspondent Eleanor Terrett reported.

Accordingly, Trump's transition team has met with CFTC member Summer Mersinger, Andreessen Horowitz's head of crypto policy, Brian Quintenz, and Kraken's former chief legal officer Marco Santori in recent weeks.

In addition to these names, the team reportedly met with Republican Commissioner Caroline Pham, as well as attorneys Neal Kumar and Josh Sterling, who previously held senior positions at the CFTC.

While Trump will make the final decision on the CFTC chairman, two policy experts who spoke to FOX Business said that Brian Quintenz and Summer Mersinger are the “most likely candidates” to be the CFTC chairman.

Why is the CFTC Chairman important?

Experts say the election of the CFTC president could be the most important election for the cryptocurrency industry.

Under Trump, the CFTC could take a bigger role in regulating the $3.5 trillion crypto market, including overseeing the spot market for some digital assets where that the regulatory environment for Bitcoin and Ethereum is unclear, if Congress approves.

The CFTC, which oversees nearly $500 trillion in foreign exchange and trading of financial products in recent years, has been competing with another major regulator, the SEC, to regulate the crypto market.

Trump has nominated several business-friendly candidates to top administration positions, including pro-crypto Paul Atkins to replace Gary Gensler, who will step down as SEC chairman, and Bitcoin supporter Scott Bessent as Secretary of Finance.

* This is not investment advice.