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Archive photo · 2 June 2025Trump Nominates Steven Levine, Kristin Johnson, Nathan Anonick, Matthew Rowland for SEC, CFTC
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Four nominees named to fill SEC and CFTC seats: Levine, Johnson, Anonick, Rowland. Levine would replace Hester Peirce on the SEC; Anonick and Rowland linked to Clarity Act.
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Trump’s SEC and CFTC slate
President Donald Trump rolled out four nominees to fill empty commissioner seats at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, setting up a sprint to confirm them before Democrats take control of the Senate in January. The White House named Steven Levine and former CFTC Commissioner Kristin Johnson for the SEC, and Nathan Anonick and Matthew Rowland for the CFTC, with all four requiring Senate confirmation. The SEC had just two of its five commissioner seats occupied, held by Chairman Paul Atkins and Commissioner Mark Uyeda, while the CFTC had only a single member, Chairman Michael Selig, on a five-seat commission.
The White House said the SEC candidates would be routed through the Senate Banking Committee and the CFTC picks through the Senate Agriculture Committee before a full floor vote. The nominations also arrived as the SEC and CFTC divide responsibility for overseeing large swaths of the crypto market, from token offerings and exchanges to derivatives and trading platforms, with vacancies creating uncertainty over how far the current deregulatory tilt will extend.
Who the nominees are
The White House announcement said Levine, an attorney, would take the seat vacated by Hester Peirce, who left the agency in October. The White House named Johnson, who served as a CFTC commissioner until last year, to fill the seat held by Caroline Crenshaw, whose term has expired. The White House said Anonick currently works for the Republican majority staff of the Senate Agriculture Committee, while Rowland is a CFTC attorney detailed to the same committee and previously served on Johnson's staff.
The White House tied both CFTC nominees to the Clarity Act, describing it as the market-structure legislation that has been a central focus of crypto policy debates on Capitol Hill. The Block reported that Ji Kim, chief executive of the Crypto Council for Innovation, congratulated the nominees in a post on X and wrote, "Both the CFTC and SEC will continue to play central and consequential roles in our financial markets".
Timing, confirmation, and stakes
The nominations landed during a lame-duck session after last week's election, with Democrats scheduled to assume the Senate majority in January and leaving Republicans only weeks to hold hearings, advance the nominations out of committee, and win majority votes on the floor. BigGo Finance said the compressed calendar could leave some or all of the seats unfilled into the next Congress, and it added that a fuller roster could alter the balance of votes on enforcement actions, rulemakings and interpretive guidance touching digital assets. Selig welcomed the pair and said, "he looked forward to working with them upon their confirmation," as the CFTC chairman positioned the slate as a path to a full commission.
Bloomingbit said that if the nominees are confirmed by the Senate, the SEC would have four commissioners and the CFTC would have three, while both agencies would still need additional appointments to reach their full five-member rosters. For now, the nominations remained proposals requiring committee consideration and a majority vote in the full Senate, with the SEC and CFTC vacancies continuing to shape how crypto oversight capacity could be staffed during the transition.