The nominee to the president of CFTC, Brian Quintenz, published several messages that he had exchanged with Tyler Winklevos, apparently in an attempt to re -put his nomination process again.
You are reading State of Crypto, a Coendesk newsletter that analyzes the intersection of cryptocurrency and government. Click here to register in future editions.
The narrative
On Wednesday, in the Coindesk policy and regulation event, an important topic of conversation was a position of the former commissioner of the Basic Products Trade Commission, Brian Quintenz, in which he shared Chat records of a conversation with the co -founder of Gemini and CEO Tyler Winklebos, an unexpected movement of a former public official who was waiting for the Senate Comforts.
Why does it matter
The Quintenz path to become president of the CFTC seemed clear until the end of July, when the Senate Agriculture Committee postponed a key vote to advance in its nomination. The White House asked the committee to stop the vote without providing an explanation initially, although then Winklevos told Coindesk that he had pressed to the White House to impose that wait. The CFTC will become the main regulatory of the spot market for Crypto in the US, and is currently led by the interim president Caroline Pham, who intends to start from the agency after the Quintenz nomination and not other commissioners. The possible lack of leadership as the agency is responsible for new mandates could slow or complicate any regulations in which it is involved.
Break down
An active candidate who awaits a vote of the Senate who shared an exchange he had with donors to the president is unusual, to say the least. In his publication, Quintenz said that “he had never inclined to release private messages,” but that he believed that President Donald Trump “could have been deceived.”
“I published here the messages that include the questions that Tyler Winklevos made me related to his previous litigation to the CFTC,” he said. “I think these texts make it clear what they were after me, and what I refused to promise. I understand that after this exchange they contacted the president and asked that my confirmation stop for reasons other than what is reflected in these texts.”
The texts he shared showed that he had exchanged messages with Winklevos on July 24 and 25. The first postponed vote in the Senate Agriculture Committee was originally scheduled for July 21, and the reprogrammed vote was on July 28. The White House requested at least the second delayed vote.
The spokesmen of the Senate Agriculture Committee and the Senate Agriculture Committee did not return the requests for comments, and a white house official could not be contacted. Quintenz declined to comment beyond his publication when he contacted earlier this week for Coindesk.
The messages were on Gemini’s complaint with the Inspector General of the CFTC linked to a CFTC case against the exchange, which was resolved earlier this year. Winklevos asked Quintenz about his thoughts on the complaint, while Quintenz repeatedly said that it would be better for “a fully confirmed chair” to evaluate the matter.
It is not clear about the messages if Winklevos was asking for a quid pro quo (He mentioned that Quintenz had asked for a support) Or he was just trying to confirm his own satisfaction that Quintenz would end what Winklevos described as “law” against Gemini and otherwise the agency is more friendly with the industry.
At the end of Quintenz, his reluctance was probably the lifeguards policies: if he had made any kind of commitment, he could have recusing to commit to the problem when he really arrives at the agency. If they committed and made public before a vote of the Senate, it would probably also become a point of conversation if there is a debate about its nomination. Quintenz also said in the messages that he had “nothing close to a complete image of what is happening inside the building”, and that “he decided to wait until he could enter the paper to obtain that vision instead of trying to achieve it now through the current leadership.”
The moment of Quintenz’s confirmation votes (the Senate Agriculture Committee needs both to advance to it and the entire Senate to confirm it, they remain in question. But it is a sign of how much that process has slowed that it felt that publishing these messages would help its cause.
Monday
- There are no audiences or votes scheduled for this week.
If you have thoughts or questions about what I should discuss next week or any other comments you want to share, do not hesitate to send me an email to [email protected] or find myself at bluesky @nikhileshde.bsky.social.
You can also join the group conversation on Telegram.
Look, next week!
