CFTC’s Christy Goldsmith Romero to exit when Trump’s chair pick confirmed: Report

Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero has reportedly said she’ll step down from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission when President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the agency takes the helm.

Romero said in a Feb. 25 statement shared with Reuters that she would exit once Congress confirms Brian Quintenz, who is currently the global head of policy at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

Quintenz was also nominated to take the seat of Goldsmith Romero, who joined the CFTC in 2022 after being appointed by former President Joe Biden.

Quintenz will still need to secure confirmation from the US Senate — and a vote is yet to be scheduled — before he can take over from acting chair Caroline Pham.

Goldsmith Romero’s departure would leave Commissioner Kristin Johnson as the sole Democrat on the CFTC’s five-person commission.

No more than three commissioners at a time can be from the same political party, meaning once Quintenz joins, the final spot must be filled by a Democrat.

Goldsmith Romero’s office and the CFTC didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

At the CFTC, Goldsmith Romero helped re-establish the technology advisory committee, which was created to guide the agency in how best to respond to the crypto industry.

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She also supported the agency’s March 27, 2023 lawsuit against crypto exchange Binance and its former CEO, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, for allegedly violating federal law and operating an illegal derivatives exchange. 

The case was eventually settled, with Binance agreeing to pay $2.7 billion and CZ paying $150 million to the CFTC.

Trump’s intention to pick Quintenz as the next head of the CFTC was first revealed in a Feb. 12 Bloomberg report, with Quintenz subsequently confirming his nomination on X.

The CFTC is currently led by acting chair Pham, who was voted acting chairman on Jan. 20 after former chair Rostin Behnam resigned.

Quintenz previously led the agency from 2017 to 2021 under the first Trump administration after being nominated by former US President Barack Obama in 2016.

While at the CFTC, he was pro-crypto, backing the integration of digital asset derivatives and crypto products into the federal agency’s regulatory framework. Even after his tenure ended, Quintenz continued to have pro-crypto stances.

Last March, he criticized the Gary Gensler-led SEC for how it dealt with the legal status of Ether (ETH), saying the regulator was inconsistent in its enforcement because, in October 2023, it approved Ether futures exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which Quintenz said is an acknowledgment it isn’t a security. 

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