President Donald Trump has chosen Michael Selig, chief counsel for the Securities and Exchange Commission’s crypto task force, to chair the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Selig’s nomination, first reported by Bloomberg, marks Trump’s second attempt to fill the CFTC’s top post, following the stalled nomination of Brian Quintenz, a16z crypto’s global policy chief, amid opposition from Gemini co-founder Tyler Winklevoss.
Selig, who serves as an aide to SEC Chairman Paul Atkins, has been instrumental in coordinating regulatory approaches between the SEC and the CFTC on financial and crypto market oversight.
The CFTC, which regulates futures, swaps and prediction markets, is gaining more prominence as Congress considers new crypto market structure legislation.
Before joining the SEC, he was a partner at Willkie Farr & Gallagher specializing in asset management.
Selig’s appointment requires Senate confirmation.
President Trump’s growing support for crypto
President Donald Trump also recently granted a full pardon to Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, calling his prosecution part of the previous administration’s “war on cryptocurrency.”
The move, confirmed by the White House, clears Zhao’s record and reflects a major shift in the government’s approach to the crypto industry.
Selig’s appointment comes as momentum behind US crypto legislation accelerated this week, as Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said the industry was “90%” of the way to securing passage of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, or CLARITY Act.
Despite a partial government shutdown, lawmakers from both parties reportedly made great progress on the long-awaited Market Structure Act.
Armstrong met with senators from both parties, including Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, Cynthia Lummis and Tim Scott, and described the discussions as “very productive.”
The bill, which passed the House in July by a bipartisan vote of 294-137, aimed to clarify which digital assets fall under the purview of the SEC versus the CFTC, while also setting rules for decentralized finance (DeFi), stablecoins and custody services.
The final points centered on how to regulate DeFi and whether consumers could earn rewards on stablecoins. Crypto advocates called on lawmakers to target regulation at intermediaries instead of open source code, warning that the banking lobby was trying to limit profits from stablecoin holdings.
Despite procedural delays from the shutdown, optimism remained high. Lummis said she expected the bill to reach President Trump’s desk before the end of the year, calling it the most significant bipartisan step toward U.S. crypto-clarity yet.