Overview
- The Senate approved Michael Selig at the CFTC and Travis Hill at the FDIC in a 53–43 package vote late Thursday.
- Selig will take over after a year of interim leadership and, with Caroline Pham leaving to join MoonPay upon his arrival, he is expected to be the CFTC’s sole confirmed member at the outset.
- Under Pham, the CFTC launched a crypto sprint, withdrew 2020 “actual delivery” guidance, ran tokenized‑collateral pilots, and encouraged listed spot and leveraged retail crypto products, with Bitnomial among the first movers.
- Selig signaled a narrower enforcement approach centered on fraud and manipulation while emphasizing rulemaking and coordination to bring more crypto activity onto regulated U.S. venues.
- Hill’s confirmation cements a banking regulator who has eased prior constraints on banks serving crypto firms and is positioned to influence stablecoin oversight and access to the banking system.