At a glance
- President Donald Trump has nominated Kristin N. Johnson and Steven Levine to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and Nathan Anonick and Matthew Rowland to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the White House said on Thursday.
- Johnson and Rowland are Democrats and Levine and Anonick are Republicans, Bloomberg Law reported. All four need Senate confirmation.
These are the first nominations to either agency since 2025, CoinDesk reported. The SEC currently has two commissioners, Chairman Paul Atkins and Mark Uyeda. The CFTC has one, Chairman Michael Selig.
Both agencies are built for five. By law, no more than three of the five can belong to the same political party.
Who goes where
The White House list names each seat and the commissioner it replaces:
| Nominee | Agency | Term ends | Seat previously held by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kristin N. Johnson (Michigan) | SEC | 5 Jun 2029 | Caroline A. Crenshaw |
| Steven Levine (Maryland) | SEC | 5 Jun 2030 | Hester M. Peirce |
| Nathan Anonick (Virginia) | CFTC | 19 Jun 2031 | Rostin Behnam |
| Matthew Rowland (District of Columbia) | CFTC | 13 Apr 2028 (remainder) | Summer K. Mersinger |
Johnson is a former CFTC commissioner and a law professor, and Levine worked as a senior official at the White House Council of Economic Advisers, according to Bloomberg Law. Anonick is senior counsel on the Senate Agriculture Committee and Rowland also works for that committee, it reported.
Levine’s seat is the one Hester Peirce left in October. She had led the agency’s Crypto Task Force since early 2025.
Why crypto should read the paperwork
The CFTC has been taking decisions on crypto with a single commissioner. That includes Selig’s push for exchange rules after the Binance hack and the approvals of single-stock perpetual futures, which the SEC backed the CFTC in court over stock perps this week.
With more commissioners, each of those calls would go to a vote of several people rather than one, and any of them could write a dissent.
The nominations are unusual in one respect. Trump had not, until now, put forward a Democrat for either agency in this term, CoinDesk noted.
What happens next
The Senate Banking Committee handles the SEC nominees and the Senate Agriculture Committee handles the CFTC pair. Each committee holds a hearing and its own vote; only then does a nomination go to the floor.
The Senate is sitting in a lame-duck session following last week’s election, with the House shake-up after the midterms still settling. No hearing dates had been set at the time of writing.
This article is for information only and is not investment advice.