A Handful of Republicans Now Hold Crypto’s Fate at the SEC and CFTC - Crypto Economy

TLDR:

• The SEC and CFTC are currently operating under exclusively Republican leadership after the exit of key Democratic figures.
• Paul Atkins, Chairman of the SEC, has declared digital assets the number one priority of his regulatory agenda.
• The absence of bipartisan commissioners at these agencies has become a hurdle for legislative negotiations in the Senate.

As 2026 begins, the crypto regulatory landscape in the United States is undergoing a major shake-up. The two agencies with the most influence over the digital asset ecosystem, the SEC and the CFTC, are now under the absolute control of industry-friendly Republican commissioners

The departure of Democratic Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw from the SEC removes the primary dissenter within the agency, clearing the way for Chairman Paul Atkins and Commissioners Hester Peirce and Mark Uyeda.


A Unified Leadership Toward a Pro-Crypto Agenda

This vacuum of Democratic opposition is allowing crypto regulation in the United States to advance in leaps and bounds. On the other hand, the new CFTC Chairman, Mike Selig, finds himself in an unusual position as the only sitting commissioner, granting him extraordinary power to execute his agenda without the need for internal debate.

Meanwhile, the SEC has already begun to drop previous enforcement actions, issuing statements to clarify favorable stances in areas such as mining, staking, and memecoins.

However, this Republican hegemony is creating tension on Capitol Hill. Democrats in the Senate are demanding that their party’s vacancies in both agencies be filled as a condition for advancing structural market legislation.

For his part, President Donald Trump has remained ambiguous about whether he will allow new Democratic appointments, questioning whether the opposition would do the same if they were in his position.

In summary, despite the legislative stalemate, both agencies have made it clear that they will move forward with creating permanent rules

Whether or not a new law is passed by Congress, crypto regulation in the United States is currently being drafted exclusively by Republican voices, promising a much more flexible regulatory environment focused on the institutional growth of the Web3 sector in the coming months.