Trump chooses Michael Selig for CFTC chair, Bloomberg News reports

Oct 24 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump has picked Michael Selig as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's chair, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing an administration official.

Selig is chief counsel for the CFTC's crypto task force and has been working alongside Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins, the report added.

Selig, the CFTC and the White House did not respond immediately to Reuters' requests for comment.

The move comes as the digital assets industry, which had been facing regulatory pressures, takes center stage under the Trump administration with new legislations and laws.

The GENIUS Act, passed into a law earlier in the year, and the CLARITY Act - which aims to establish a regulatory framework for digital assets - have been received well by investors in the sector.

Trump has been vocal about his support for cryptocurrency, and had promised in his campaigns to make America the crypto capital of the world if he was elected to power.

The president's decision to pick Selig came after he tapped Brian Quintenz for the CFTC's chair, which was stalled following an opposition by Tyler Winklevoss, the co-founder of recently listed cryptocurrency exchange Gemini GEMI.O.

Quintenz, a Republican who previously was a commissioner at the agency, had accused Winklevoss of lobbying the White House to stall his nomination.

The CFTC is typically led by a bipartisan group of five commissioners. The president has historically nominated commissioners from both parties to serve.

Selig has been with the CFTC since March 2025 and in his current role he has worked to align regulatory approaches between the SEC and the CFTC across broad sectors of finance and the cryptocurrency industry, the report added.

He was previously a partner at international law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher.