U.S. Senate Rolls Toward Last Vote on Confirming Crypto Regulators at CFTC, FDIC

AI Summary4 min read

TL;DR

The U.S. Senate is nearing final confirmation votes for Mike Selig as CFTC chairman and Travis Hill as FDIC chairman, key regulators for the crypto sector. A procedural vote passed 52-47, with the final vote expected early next week as part of a batch of 97 Trump nominees.

Key Takeaways

•The Senate advanced procedural votes for confirming Mike Selig as CFTC chairman and Travis Hill as FDIC chairman, with final votes expected early next week.
•Both the CFTC and FDIC will play significant roles in U.S. crypto oversight, with Selig replacing acting chair Caroline Pham and Hill transitioning from interim to official FDIC chief.
•The CFTC has already taken proactive steps in crypto regulation, including allowing Bitcoin, Ether, and stablecoins as collateral and forming a CEO council for policy input.
•The confirmation process is part of a Republican strategy to batch-confirm dozens of Trump nominees at once, with 97 nominations being voted on together.
•Both nominees have backgrounds favoring crypto-friendly policies, aligning with Trump administration efforts to create supportive regulatory environments for digital assets.

Procedural vote toward confirmation of CFTC, FDIC heads (U.S. Senate) — A procedural vote moves CFTC and FDIC nominees closer toward confirmation. (U.S. Senate)

What to know:

The Senate made another positive move toward an eventual confirmation vote on two top U.S. crypto regulators poised to fill the chair roles at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
A Senate staffer predicts a final vote next week on confirming 97 nominees of President Donald Trump, including Mike Selig for the CFTC and Travis Hill for the FDIC.

The Senate made another positive move toward an eventual confirmation vote on two top U.S. crypto regulators poised to fill the chair roles at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
A Senate staffer predicts a final vote next week on confirming 97 nominees of President Donald Trump, including Mike Selig for the CFTC and Travis Hill for the FDIC.

Both the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will have significant reach into supervising the U.S. crypto sector, and President Donald Trump's nominees to be their chairman have been crawling through a Senate confirmation process that's close to its end — though the Senate likely remains days away from actually holding the final vote.

After a Thursday approval 52-47 of the resolution that sets up the final vote, Mike Selig is one step away from taking over the CFTC, and Travis Hill's ascent to chairman at the FDIC will also soon be decided. A spokeswoman for Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso posted on social media site X that the final vote is likely "early next week."

The Republicans in the Senate have leaned into an unusual approach of confirming dozens of Trump's nominees at a time. In this case, there are 97 confirmation questions being voted on, with Selig and Hill just two among them.

Selig, a senior official working on crypto matters at the Securities and Exchange Commission, would replace Acting Chairman Caroline Pham, who has been leading the CFTC through a number of pro-crypto policy initiatives. The CFTC is expected to take a leading role on crypto oversight in the U.S., especially if Congress eventually passes a market structure bill that cements the agency's authority.

Even before any legislation makes its way through the Senate, the CFTC has gone on an aggressive blitz, forming a CEO council to weigh in on policy issues, allowing Bitcoin BTC$92,388.57, Ether ETH$3,246.91 and USDC (among other payment stablecoins) to be used as collateral and allowing registered firms provide spot crypto trading services.

Hill has already been leading the FDIC as an interim chief, so his confirmation would make that role official for him. He's also pursued an agenda that favors friendly crypto banking policies.

As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. said on Thursday that a subsidiary received a no-action letter from the U.S. SEC on offerings of tokenized real-world assets.
The letter implicitly grants approval for the offering of certain tokenized stocks on approved blockchains for three years.
The authorization applies to the constituents of the Russell 1000 index and exchange-traded funds tracking major indexes and U.S. Treasuries.

Disclosure & Polices: CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk has adopted a set of principles aimed at ensuring the integrity, editorial independence and freedom from bias of its publications. CoinDesk is part of Bullish (NYSE:BLSH), an institutionally focused global digital asset platform that provides market infrastructure and information services. Bullish owns and invests in digital asset businesses and digital assets and CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive Bullish equity-based compensation.