CFTC commissioner Dan Berkovitz will become SEC general counsel

Published at: Sept. 28, 2021

Dan Berkovitz, one of three commissioners currently serving at the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission, will be joining the Securities and Exchange Commission as general counsel following his departure in October.

In a Tuesday announcement, the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, said Berkovitz would assume the role of general counsel starting on Nov. 1, two weeks after stepping down as a commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, where he has served since 2018. Berkovitz said he will be working with SEC chair Gary Gensler on a “regulatory agenda that will enhance investor protection.”

Though his term at the CFTC was originally set to end in 2023, Berkovitz announced in September that he was planning to leave on Oct. 15. His departure follows U.S. President Joe Biden tapping Kristin Johnson and Christy Goldsmith Romero to fill the CFTC seats left by former chair Heath Tarbert and Brian Quintenz. The White House has not yet named a possible replacement for Berkovitz.

This month, Berkovitz said the CFTC’s enforcement actions in the crypto space have been “aggressive,” citing a $100 million civil monetary penalty against derivatives exchange BitMEX. The CFTC commissioner has also hinted that decentralized finance platforms were likely illegal under the Commodity Exchange Act, saying there is a “spectrum of centralization” around projects in the DeFi space that could make them subject to registration at the government agency.

Related: CFTC renewed: What Biden’s new agency picks hold for crypto regulation

Berkovitz will be serving the American people while under the leadership of Gary Gensler, who has argued that many crypto projects have created securities that fall under the SEC’s regulatory framework. In August, the SEC chair said he hopes to introduce crypto-related policy changes surrounding token offerings, decentralized finance, stablecoins, custody, exchange-traded funds and lending platforms.

Tags
Regulation
United States
Sec
Government
Law
Cftc
Related Posts
US Congressman Introduces Crypto-Currency Act of 2020
A United States congressman is the latest working to clarify and determine which U.S. regulator is responsible for which digital assets. On March 9, Representative Paul Gosar (R-AZ) introduced the “Crypto-Currency Act of 2020,” a bill that looks to choreograph a wide range of digital assets to answer to the appropriate regulator. The proposed regulatory schema As Will Stechschulte, Gosar’s legislative assistant, explained to Cointelegraph, “the bill looks to provide not only clarity, but legitimacy to crypto assets in the United States.” Gosar’s proposal divides digital assets into three categories: crypto-commodity, crypto-currency and crypto-security. Respectively, the three categories would be …
Regulation / March 9, 2020
Law Decoded: Making sense of mixed signals, Dec. 13–20
The crypto regulation regime in any jurisdiction is an equilibrium among multiple institutional, group and personal interests of actors who have a sway over financial and monetary policies. These interests never perfectly align, frequently resulting in contradictory signals coming out of various power centers. Speaking about systemic risks facing the world’s largest economy last week, the United States Federal Reserve chair said digital assets were not a financial stability concern. Two days later, the U.S. Financial Stability Oversight Council issued a report that concluded that stablecoins and decentralized finance could pose sizeable financial stability risks. The source of this discrepancy …
Etf / Dec. 20, 2021
U.S. Congressman calls for ‘Broad, bipartisan consensus’ on important issues of digital asset policy
In a letter to the leadership of the United States House Financial Services Committee, ranking member Patrick McHenry took a jab at “inconsistent treatment and jurisdictional uncertainty” inherent in U.S. crypto regulation and called for the Committee to take on its critical issues. McHenry, a Republican representing North Carolina, opened by mentioning that the Committee’s Democrat Chairwoman Maxine Waters is looking to schedule additional hearings addressing matters pertinent to the digital asset industry. He further stressed the need for identifying and prioritizing the key issues and achieving a “broad, bipartisan consensus” on the matters affecting the industry that holds immense …
Regulation / Jan. 25, 2022
US lawmakers urge CFTC and SEC to form joint working group on digital assets
Two members of the United States House of Representatives have petitioned the heads of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to work with participants in the crypto space for transparency and regulatory clarity. In a Monday tweet, Representative Glenn Thompson said he had submitted a letter with Representative Patrick McHenry to the CFTC and SEC, urging the agencies to "establish a joint working group on digital assets.” Thompson and McHenry requested SEC Chair Gary Gensler and acting CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam to “promote an active dialogue” between federal regulators and participants in …
Regulation / Aug. 17, 2021
SEC Commissioner Peirce Asks ‘Who Did We Protect?’ in Telegram Shutdown
In her July 21 speech for Blockchain Week Singapore, Securities and Exchange Commissioner Hester Peirce, known among the industry as ‘CryptoMom,’ spoke out on her opposition to the SEC’s recently concluded suit against Telegram. SEC action against Telegram served neither investors nor mission Peirce’s speech, entitled “Not Braking and Breaking,” emphasized the roles and responsibilities of regulators regarding innovation, particularly in the light of the case against Telegram that came to an end in June. Telegram had sold $1.7 billion in contracts for GRAM tokens, which would be the native token of the Telegram Open Network. As preface, the commissioner …
Regulation / July 21, 2020