CFTC Chair nominee Brian Quintenz posted several messages he’d exchanged with Tyler Winklevoss, seemingly in a bid to get his nomination process back on track.
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The narrative
On Wednesday, at CoinDesk’s Policy and Regulation event, one major topic of conversation was a post from former Commodity Futures Trading Commission Commissioner Brian Quintenz in which he shared chat logs from a conversation with Gemini co-founder and CEO Tyler Winklevoss, an unexpected move from a former public official waiting for the Senate to confirm him to head up the commodities regulator.
Why it matters
Quintenz’s path to becoming chair of the CFTC seemed clear until late July, when the Senate Agriculture Committee twice postponed a key vote to advance his nomination. The White House asked the committee to pause the vote without initially providing an explanation, though later Winklevoss told CoinDesk he had lobbied the White House to impose that hold. The CFTC is set to become the primary spot market regulator for crypto in the U.S., and is currently helmed by Acting Chair Caroline Pham, who intends to depart the agency after Quintenz’s nomination and no other commissioners. The potential lack of leadership as the agency gets tasked with new mandates could slow down or otherwise complicate any rulemakings it engages in.
Breaking it down
An active nominee awaiting a Senate vote sharing an exchange he had with donors to the president is unusual, to say the least. In his post, Quintenz said he had “never been inclined to release private messages” but that he believed President Donald Trump “might have been misled.”
“I’ve posted here the messages that include the questions Tyler Winklevoss asked me pertaining to their prior litigation with the CFTC,” he said. “I believe these texts make it clear what they were after from me, and what I refused to promise. It’s my understanding that after this exchange they contacted the president and asked that my confirmation be paused for reasons other than what is reflected in these texts.”
The texts he shared showed he had exchanged messages with Winklevoss on July 24 and 25. The first postponed vote in the Senate Agriculture Committee was originally scheduled for July 21, and the rescheduled vote was on July 28. The White House requested at least the second vote be delayed.
Spokespeople for Gemini and the Senate Agriculture Committee did not return requests for comment, and a White House press official could not be reached. Quintenz declined to comment beyond his post when reached earlier this week by CoinDesk.
The messages were about Gemini’s complaint with the CFTC’s Inspector General tied to a CFTC case against the exchange, which was settled earlier this year. Winklevoss asked Quintenz for his thoughts on the complaint, while Quintenz repeatedly said it would be better for “a fully confirmed chair” to weigh in on the matter.
It’s unclear from the messages whether Winklevoss was asking for a quid pro quo (he mentioned that Quintenz had asked for an endorsement) or was just trying to confirm to his own satisfaction that Quintenz would end what Winklevoss described as “lawfare” against Gemini and otherwise reshape the agency to be more industry-friendly.
On Quintenz’s end, his reticence was likely political savvines — if he had made some form of commitment, he may have had to recuse himself from engaging with the issue when he actually gets to the agency. If he made a commitment and it became public prior to a Senate vote, it would also probably become a talking point if there is a debate on his nomination. Quintenz also said in the messages that he did not have “anything close to a full picture of what is going on inside the building,” and that he “decided to wait until I can get into the role to get that view as opposed to trying to get it now through current leadership.”
The timing of Quintenz’s confirmation votes — he needs both the Senate Agriculture Committee to advance him and the entire Senate to confirm him — remain in question. But it’s a sign of how much that process has slowed that he felt posting these messages would help his cause.
Monday
- There are no hearings or votes scheduled for this upcoming week.
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