U.S. CFTC Chair Behnam Makes Departure Official, Stepping Down on Inauguration Day

With a formal departure announcement from U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Rostin Behnam, January 20 is now the official last day of both heads of the U.S. markets regulators.

Behnam joins Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler on choosing the very last day of the administration of President Joe Biden as their final day running their respective agencies. As President-elect Donald Trump is again sworn in, his new administration will have fresh vacancies atop those commissions.

“We have welcomed new opportunities to modernize, build capabilities, and, with the support of the Congress, incorporate the innovations shaping our markets,” he said in a Tuesday statement about his exit, first from the chairmanship and later – next month – from the commission itself. Behnam noted that the CFTC under his tenure “responsibly engaged new entrants to support innovation.”

He leaves the CFTC on the cusp of what’s likely a future ascension to take over regulation of crypto spot markets, including the trading of bitcoin (BTC). In most of the legislative efforts that sought to establish U.S. rules of the road for the crypto sector, the derivatives watchdog takes a leading role. Behnam’s Republican replacement will likely steer that new assignment if Congress finally approves a bill.

While Behnam’s agency got some credit from the crypto sector for being more reasonable than the SEC, it was also responsible for some of the heaviest enforcement actions against digital assets businesses.