Reports suggest the US Senate Banking Committee may form a crypto subcommittee as Trump considers a pro-crypto CFTC commissioner for leadership.
The US Senate Banking Committee is reportedly poised to create its first-ever crypto subcommittee, while a pro-crypto commissioner is now a top pick to replace the outgoing chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, according to two reports.
The two reports — seen as positive developments for the crypto industry — come less than two weeks before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, slated for Jan. 20.
According to a report from FOX Business on Jan. 9, following a Punchbowl News report on Jan. 8, the US Senate Banking Committee’s new chair, Republican Senator Tim Scott, has made the creation of the subcommittee a top priority and plans to replicate the House Financial Services Committee’s model, which introduced a crypto subcommittee in 2023.
Two Senate aides told FOX that Scott has put forward Senator Cynthia Lummis to chair the subcommittee, with a vote on her approval to happen in the next few days.
Lummis, a longtime crypto supporter, has recently echoed Trump’s call for a strategic Bitcoin reserve.
Trump has made sweeping promises to rein in crypto regulation by enforcement and transform the US into a “crypto capital.”
The Senate Banking Committee is the main overseer of financial agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission and of federal monetary policy.
A memo seen by FOX said Senators Bernie Moreno, Dave McCormick, Thom Tillis, and Bill Hagerty were being considered for the new crypto subcommittee.
They are all “strongly supportive” of crypto, according to the digital assets lobby group Stand With Crypto.
It is not known which Democrats might be joining the subcommittee, but Senator Elizabeth Warren, a vocal crypto skeptic, is the party’s most senior member of the Senate Banking Committee.
In 2024, the House passed a critical crypto bill known as FIT21 that was created by the House Financial Services crypto subcommittee.
It would hand increased regulatory control to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The measure is currently awaiting action in the Senate.
Mersinger Nominated To Lead CFTC
Meanwhile, Unchained reported on Jan. 9 that five individuals close to the matter said CFTC Commissioner Summer Mersinger has emerged as a leading choice to chair the agency, as current CFTC chair Rostin Behnam said he’d be stepping down when Trump takes office.
Mersinger has surpassed Brian Quintenz, the former CFTC commissioner and chief of a16z policy, in the competition for the position, as she is perceived as a candidate who could successfully navigate a Senate confirmation. For twelve years, she served as a staff member for Senate Majority Leader John Thune.
Trump has the option of appointing her to a temporary chair position while the Senate deliberates on her confirmation, given that she is already a commissioner.
Mersinger has expressed her support for cryptocurrency, stating at a Blockchain conference in November that she was “uncomfortable” with the CFTC’s “kind of setting some sort of policy through our enforcement cases.”
Trump is scheduled to assume office on January 20, which will officially grant Republicans complete control of the government.
This development follows the party’s acquisition of a majority of Senate seats and the preservation of its House majority in the November elections. On January 3, the new Congress convened.