The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is poised to become the primary regulator of the cryptocurrency market and businesses, if pending legislation before Congress becomes law. And earlier this year, Brian Quintenz, former CFTC commissioner and head of crypto policy at Andreessen Horowitz, appeared poised to take over that agency, putting the pro-crypto policymaker at the forefront of writing the rules the crypto industry has long sought — that is, until the committee abruptly announced it would twice postpone a vote on his nomination, ultimately saying the White House had asked him to not hold the vote on President Donald Trump’s nominee, without further explanation.
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Gemini (GEMI) co-founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss took credit for holding up and ultimately rejecting Quintenz’s nomination, signaling just how much power billionaire crypto executives and major Trump donors can wield in the current administration while derailing the confirmation process for a regulator that much of the rest of the crypto industry wanted installed.
“Many people in our industry are very concerned 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 largely silent about the turmoil surrounding his appointment until September, when he published messages he exchanged with Winklevoss, in which Winklevoss appeared to ask Quintenz to take a strong stance on the CFTC’s handling of a case against Gemini that was settled in January 2025.
“I think these texts clearly show what they were looking for from me,” Quintenz said in a social media post, adding that he believed Winklevoss’s communications with the president misled Trump.
“I know we talked about it over the winter, when I remembered my initial extreme disappointment at [the Enforcement Division] for pursuing this action so aggressively,” Quintenz said in one of the posts. “I am committed to you conducting a fair and reasonable review of the matter and the division and individuals involved to determine whether they acted inappropriately.”
Despite his pressure, the White House withdrew his nomination a few weeks later.
