Quorum Quorum on the Wall, Who's the Fairest Crypto Regulator of Them All? 🪞

The US Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission are advancing crypto rulemaking with a combined total of just three confirmed leaders, two of whom were nominated by President Donald Trump, leaving oversight of the multitrillion-dollar digital asset market concentrated in an unusually small group as Congress has yet to pass comprehensive digital asset legislation.

At the SEC, Chair Paul Atkins and former Acting Chair Mark Uyeda remain the agency's two sitting commissioners following the departure of Commissioner Hester Peirce earlier this month. The CFTC is operating with even thinner leadership: Michael Selig has been its only Senate-confirmed chair and commissioner since December 2025. Both agencies are statutorily designed to have five commissioners each.

With Congress failing to enact a broader market structure bill, the SEC and CFTC have each moved forward with proposed rules that their leaders have described as efforts to use existing authorities to regulate crypto. The SEC proposed rules in August to create a safe harbor from tokens being treated as "investment contracts," and the CFTC followed in October, with Selig saying the agency would use its "existing statutory authorities" to address crypto through proposed rules on exchanges. Atkins added on Oct. 2 that "more regulatory proposals [were] on the horizon."

The SEC further eased the path for rulemaking when it released a final rule on Sept. 30 that took effect on Oct. 2, amending its quorum requirements in what the agency said was meant to "promot[e] flexibility and finality of agency rulemaking." The rule reduces the number of commissioners required for a quorum to one person in many cases when only two commissioners are present. Financial Times columnist Robin Wigglesworth wrote in an Oct. 5 op-ed that "with now just two commissioners around and it being entirely possible that one of them might have to recuse themselves from an issue (or be otherwise MIA), just one is now enough to pass a formal rule that applies to America's vast multitrillion-dollar securities markets."

Uyeda responded in his own Financial Times op-ed on Sunday, stating that the SEC's "commitment to its mission remains unchanged" despite the leadership gap and the absence of any announcement from Trump regarding additional nominations. Uyeda said the quorum rule change "clarifies that the Commission can establish a quorum if all but one commissioner is disqualified from a matter." Wigglesworth's op-ed had characterized the move by suggesting that the SEC is "'hastily revamp[ing]' its quorum rule so that the remaining commissioners can 'have their way.'" The SEC and CFTC have not indicated when additional commissioners will be nominated or confirmed.