CFTC commissioner to join Blockchain Association as CEO

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By Hannah Lang

(Reuters) -Summer Mersinger said on Wednesday she was resigning from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and a cryptocurrency lobby group announced it was making her its CEO.

Mersinger, a Republican appointed to be a commissioner in 2022 by former President Joe Biden, had been in the mix to lead the CFTC until President Donald Trump instead tapped former official and crypto executive Brian Quintenz as chairman.

The Blockchain Association said Mersinger would join the trade group as CEO in June, as the cryptocurrency sector ramps up its push to overhaul digital asset policy.

In a statement, the association said Mersinger would be “the ideal leader” to take the industry to “new heights.”

Sarah Milby, the Blockchain Association’s head of policy, will serve as interim CEO until Mersinger assumes the role on June 2. The group’s current CEO Kristin Smith is stepping down Friday to join the Solana Policy Institute.

The CFTC and Mersinger’s office did not immediately respond to specific queries about the transition to the new role.

Trump on the campaign trail pledged to be a “crypto president” and courted cash from the industry by promising to promote the adoption of digital assets.

In his first week in office, Trump ordered creation of a cryptocurrency working group to propose digital asset regulations. In March, he signed an executive order to create a federal stockpile of bitcoin.

The crypto industry is pushing for Congress to pass legislation to create new rules for cryptocurrencies. That effort faced a setback last week when a bill intended to provide a regulatory framework for stablecoins — a type of cryptocurrency pegged to the US dollar — failed to clear a hurdle in the US Senate.

(Reporting by Hannah Lang in New York and Douglas Gillison in Washington; Editing by David Gregorio)