CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam to Resign as Regulator Exodus Continues Ahead of Trump’s Return

U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Rostin Behnam will resign later this month, he said Tuesday in a statement. 

Behnam plans to resign on January 20—the day that President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in—and will leave the Commission on February 7. The top markets cop is the latest of several crypto-skeptic regulators to step down in a bid to avoid skirmishes with the incoming administration, which has promised to install more pro-crypto officials at the helm of several federal regulators.  

“Over the past several years, a multitude of domestic and global events tested the resilience of all financial markets,” Behnam said in the statement. “I am pleased to leave the CFTC and the derivatives markets stronger than ever.”

Behnam did not cite the reason for his departure, which he announced just one day after Michael Barr said that he would resign as Federal Reserve Board Vice Chair for Supervision due to the likelihood of a political scuffle over his appointment.

The CFTC is responsible for steering oversight of derivatives markets, including crypto futures contracts and options.  

As CFTC Chief, Behnam jockeyed to make the Commission the primary regulator of Bitcoin, giving it considerable influence over the future of the digital asset industry in the U.S. He also advocated for firmer regulatory guardrails for spot cryptocurrency exchange-traded products, calling attention to “opaque and inconsistent practices in the cash markets for digital assets.”

Trump is likely to replace Behnam with one of the Commissions’ standing Republican CFTC Commissioners—Summer Mersinger or Caroline Pham, Reuters reported Tuesday. 

Behnam is the latest of several regulators appointed by President Joe Biden that are abandoning their posts ahead of Trump’s inauguration. Securities Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler signaled in November he would step down as of January 20, while two other Democrat-appointed Commissioners are also on their way out.

Edited by Andrew Hayward