With the minute-to-minute confirmation of Mike Selig’s nomination to head the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, its alternate head, Caroline Pham, is closer to her long-held plan to move to crypto firm MoonPay.
As CoinDesk reported last month, Pham reportedly intends to take on the role of chief legal officer and chief administrative officer of the company, a crypto-focused financial technology company, which just obtained a charter trust in New York last month. It’s a path the company confirmed Wednesday, including in a statement from Pham acknowledging her transition once she is replaced by President Donald Trump’s nominee, Selig.
“I am delighted to join MoonPay at a pivotal time,” Pham said, in an unusual career note released before the regulator’s departure. Pham also posted on the social media site X on Wednesday that once Selig is sworn in, she hopes for “a smooth transition.”
“The future is bright,” she said.
The former Citigroup chief executive led an aggressive pro-crypto policy agenda, which came to a head with several new initiatives launched in recent weeks, just as Selig’s confirmation process moved through the Senate. He is expected to be approved among a large field of candidates in a vote currently scheduled for Wednesday evening.
Selig is an official at the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, where he contributed to the agency’s work on crypto policy.
“Caroline is one of the most influential leaders in U.S. financial regulation, helping to define the future of digital assets,” Ivan Soto-Wright, co-founder and CEO of MoonPay, said in a statement calling her “the ideal leader to guide MoonPay through our next chapter of growth and compliance excellence.”
At the company, which also holds a New York BitLicense and manages cryptocurrency trading, payments and stablecoin infrastructure, Pham will oversee its policy and regulatory strategy in Washington. It is not directly regulated by the CFTC.
Read more: Most influential: Caroline Pham
