US CFTC Democrat says she could possibly be a ‘gadfly’ to Republican majority

By Isla Binnie and Laura Matthews

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Kristin Johnson, a prime Democratic official on the Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee, signalled on Wednesday she could be keen to remain on on the company below new Republican management, serving as a “gadfly” on key points like crypto and synthetic intelligence.

President-elect Donald Trump is anticipated to exchange the present Democratic CFTC chair Rostin Behnam with a Republican choose, finally giving the governing get together management of the five-member fee.

Whereas the CFTC, which oversees commodity derivatives markets, has historically been a junior participant in monetary coverage, it’s more likely to play a extra outstanding function as Trump’s administration begins to overtake cryptocurrency rules.

Johnson’s time period is because of expire in April, however talking on the Reuters NEXT convention in New York on Wednesday, she stated she was assured she may keep on doing constructive work within the CFTC’s minority, assuming the White Home agrees with Democrats to re-nominate her for a second time period.

The Biden administration earlier this 12 months nominated Johnson for a prime Treasury Division function, however that transfer and different Democratic nominations have stalled with so little time left on the congressional calendar.

“Lots of what occurs within the minority is … elevating actually important factors that almost all could be keen to forego or compromise on … so type of being a gadfly,” Johnson stated.

She added: “As a former educational I feel I’ve this in spades.”

Throughout her time on the CFTC, Johnson has advocated for stronger guidelines to guard customers from fraud in digital forex markets after the collapse of crypto change FTX, and is specializing in the methods synthetic intelligence could possibly be used each to commit monetary crimes and to police them.

“What occurs subsequent within the journey of integrating AI into monetary markets is a very huge and essential query,” she stated. “I feel it is a non-partisan query that actually shall be on the fore for the incoming administration.”