SEC and CFTC to Operate With Three Commissioners After Peirce Exit

The Securities and Exchange Commission will have two commissioners as of Friday, when Hester Peirce leaves the agency after eight years. Combined with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which has been down to a single commissioner since December 2025, seven seats across the two regulators will be vacant.

Peirce, a Republican whose second term had been extended by 18 months, departs roughly two months before that extension expires. She was widely known in the industry as "Crypto Mom" for her positions on digital assets. Her exit marks only the second time in the SEC's history that it has run with two commissioners, according to Cointelegraph.

What remains is a pair of Republicans at the SEC: Chair Paul Atkins and Mark Uyeda, the latter a Biden appointee from 2022. At the CFTC, Michael Selig has served as chair and sole commissioner since Caroline Pham, then acting chair, left in December 2025. The SEC panel is designed for five members and the CFTC for five as well.

Only the president can nominate replacements under federal law, and the White House has announced neither candidates nor an intent to put any forward. Every current commissioner except Uyeda was chosen by Donald Trump. A White House official said Trump planned to nominate members to both agencies "in the near future." CNBC reported on Sept. 4 that officials had been vetting four candidates for the CFTC's open seats, without naming them.

Agency responses have been mixed. The SEC did not reply to an immediate request for comment from Cointelegraph. A CFTC spokesperson said Selig "welcomes new Commissioners to the CFTC upon their nomination and confirmation by the US Senate," adding that the agency was "more than equipped to also oversee [its] part of the crypto market."

Congressional Democrats have challenged the arrangement. In a June letter to Trump and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Senate Democrats wrote that lawmakers had built these bodies to be bipartisan and had granted them authority over central parts of American life, but that the administration "appears intent on ensuring that it retains complete control over these agencies, with little interest in working in good faith with Congress."

Rulemaking Fills the Gap

With nominations stalled, both agencies are advancing crypto policy through their own rulemaking rather than through legislation. Industry groups had pressed lawmakers to pass the Digital Asset Clarity Act this month, but the bill failed in the Republican-controlled Senate. The measure would have shifted authority over digital asset regulation toward the CFTC, taking on roles the SEC currently holds.

Absent that law, the two regulators have issued divergent readings of federal statutes as they apply to token issuers. The SEC published staff guidance on investment contracts, while the CFTC set out how companies could use blockchain-based recordkeeping.