Caroline Pham, the acting chair of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, will leave the financial regulator to join MoonPay, following the Senate confirmation of her successor.
In a Wednesday X post, MoonPay confirmed reports that Pham would join its team as a chief legal and administrative officer. She became acting chair in January amid the changeover in presidential administrations and has been the sole Republican commissioner at the CFTC for months, following the end of other leaders’ terms and resignations.
Pham said in May that she planned to leave the CFTC following the Senate confirmation of Brian Quintenz, US President Donald Trump’s first pick to replace her as chair. However, after a pushback from Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the White House withdrew Quintenz’s nomination and later named Securities and Exchange Commission official Michael Selig as the president’s pick for CFTC chair.
The acting CFTC chair would not be the first person in a high-level regulatory position to immediately move into a role with the crypto industry. Summer Mersinger, another CFTC commissioner, left the agency in May to become the CEO of the Blockchain Association, a crypto advocacy group.
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During her time as acting chair, Pham’s agenda was consistent with White House directives, including those related to the cryptocurrency industry. She reported in September that the CFTC had taken only 18 actions while she was in charge, and no enforcement cases.
The acting chair also launched the Crypto CEO Forum and CEO Innovation Council, which included leaders from crypto companies.
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Before Mersinger joined the Blockchain Association and MoonPay announced Pham would accept a role after her departure from the CFTC, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren suggested that some government officials could be laying the groundwork to “audition” for lobbying and regulatory positions at crypto companies and organizations.
Warren signed onto a 2022 letter with several other lawmakers raising similar concerns about public officials’ priorities while in office. The letter cited reports claiming that “over 200 government officials,” including members of Congress and White House staff, had taken positions as advisers, board members, investors, lobbyists, legal counsel and executives at crypto companies.
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