The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is set to become a primary market regulator for cryptocurrencies and companies, should legislation pending before Congress become law. And earlier this year, former CFTC commissioner and Andreessen Horowitz crypto policy chief Brian Quintenz appeared set to take over that agency, putting the pro-crypto policymaker at the forefront of rule-writing that the crypto industry has long sought — that is, until the committee abruptly announced it would postpone the vote on his nomination, twice, and finally said the White House asked him not to hold the vote on President Donald Trump’s nominee, without more explanations.
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Gemini (GEMI) co-founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss took credit for stopping and ultimately scuttling Quintenz’s nomination, indicating how much influence billionaire crypto executives and prominent Trump donors can wield within the current administration, while derailing the confirmation process for a regulator that much of the rest of the crypto industry wanted to see installed.
“Many in our industry have significant concerns about this nomination,” Tyler Winklevoss told CoinDesk in August, shortly after confirmation votes were postponed. “Mr. Quintenz is not aligned with the president’s stated agenda and goals.”
Quintenz, for his part, remained silent about the turmoil surrounding his nomination until September, when he posted messages he had exchanged with Winklevoss, where Winklevoss appeared to ask Quintenz to take a firm position on how the CFTC handled a case against Gemini that was settled in January 2025.
“I think these texts make clear what they were looking for from me,” Quintenz said in a social media post, adding that he believed Winklevoss’ communications with the president misled Trump.
“I know we had talked about this in the winter, when I remembered my original extreme disappointment at [the Enforcement Division] for pursuing this so aggressively,” Quintenz said in one of the posted messages. “I am committed to you to conduct a fair and reasonable review of the matter and of the division and individuals involved to determine whether they acted inappropriately.”
Despite his pressure, the White House withdrew his nomination a few weeks later.
