Lowenstein Crypto advises leading digital asset and cryptocurrency projects, exchanges, and trading firms. Our practice covers regulatory advice, transactions and structuring advice, investigations, and adversarial matters including commercial disputes, bankruptcy, and related litigation. As these markets continue their rapid growth and market participants continue to evolve and mature their businesses, we are providing this weekly digest as a resource that highlights and summarizes a selection of key recent legal regulatory developments.
President Donald Trump Nominates Former CFTC
Commissioner Brian Quintenz for CFTC Chairman Role
Former CFTC Commissioner Brian Quintenz has been nominated by
President Donald Trump as the next Chairman of the CFTC. Quintenz
previously served as a Commissioner of the CFTC for four years.
More recently, he was the head of crypto policy at a16z. Quintenz
also sits on the board of Kalshi, a CFTC-registered designated
contract market and derivatives clearing organization that offers
event contracts. Read the news coverage here.
CFTC Announces Crypto CEO Forum To Launch Digital Asset
Markets Pilot
On February 7, acting CFTC Chair Caroline Pham announced that the
CFTC will host a CEO forum to discuss the launch of the CFTC's
digital asset markets pilot program. The program will focus on
tokenized noncash collateral, an issue that the CFTC's Global
Markets Advisory Committee studied extensively under Pham's
leadership. It will also be a testing ground to provide regulatory
clarity to digital asset spot markets. The forum will host leading
industry firms such as Circle, Coinbase, Crypto.com, Moonpay, and
Ripple. Read the CFTC press release here.
House Financial Services Subcommittee Holds 'A
Golden Age of Digital Assets: Charting a Path Forward'
Hearing
The House Financial Services Committee's Subcommittee
on Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Artificial
Intelligence held a hearing on February 11 discussing existing use
cases for digital assets and blockchain technology and the need for
comprehensive digital asset market structure legislation. Testimony
was heard from Jonathan Jachym, Deputy General Counsel and Global
Head of Policy and Government Relations of Kraken Digital Asset
Exchange; Ji Hun Kim, President and acting CEO of Crypto Council
for Innovation; Coy Garrison, a partner at the law firm Steptoe
LLP; Jose Fernandez da Ponte, Senior Vice President and General
Manager of Blockchain, Crypto, and Digital Currencies at PayPal;
and Timothy Massad, former CFTC Chairman and research fellow and
Director of the Digital Assets Policy Project at Harvard
University. The witnesses called for Congress to establish the
foundation for a comprehensive federal legislative framework for
digital assets in the aftermath of the "regulation by
enforcement" approach of the previous administration. Another
key theme of the hearing was the need for collaboration between
regulatory authorities and industry stakeholders in order to
develop an effective regulatory framework going forward.
Witness statements are accessible here. View the full hearing
video here.
Board of Governors Member Christopher Waller Speaks on
'Reflections on a Maturing Stablecoin
Market'
On February 12, Federal Reserve Board of Governors member
Christopher Waller, Ph.D., spoke in San Francisco at A Very Stable
Conference, a conference held to explore the utilization of
stablecoins. In his speech, Waller emphasized the significance of
stablecoins in the crypto ecosystem and their potential to enhance
retail and cross-border payments. He also stressed the necessity
for stablecoins to demonstrate a clear and viable commercial case
to be economically stable. Waller discussed the potential
challenges that stablecoins need to overcome, emphasizing the need
(1) to promote the safety and soundness of stablecoins, (2) for a
proper regulatory regime, and (3) to create a stablecoin market
that has a high degree of interoperability to support stablecoin
issuers and blockchain networks. Read the full speech here.
White House Nominates New Chiefs for Bank, Market
Regulators
The White House plans to nominate Jonathan McKernan as full-time
Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and
Jonathan Gould as head of the Office of the Comptroller of the
Currency. McKernan formerly served on the board of the Federal
Deposit Insurance Corp. and was counsel to the U.S. Senate Banking
Committee under Sen. Pat Toomey. Before these roles, McKernan was
senior counsel at the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Gould most
recently served as a partner at a big law firm. Prior to that, he
worked as Chief Legal Officer at Bitfury, a crypto firm, and was
chief counsel for the Senate Banking Committee under former
Chairman Mike Crapo. If both nominees are confirmed, McKernan will
take over the CFPB and Gould will lead the regulation of large
national banks. Read the article here.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
