Brian Quintz v. Tyler Winklevoss

CFTC Chair candidate Brian Kintenz posted several messages he exchanged for Tyler Winklevoss.

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On Wednesday, at the Coindsk policy and regulatory event, one of the main topics in the conversation was a post by former Commodity Futures Trading Committee Chairman Brian Quintz, where he shared a chat log from a conversation with Gemini co-founder and CEO Tyler Winklevos.

Why is it important?

Quintenz’s path to becoming CFTC chair seemed clear until late July when the Senate Agriculture Committee postponed twice a key vote to advance his appointment. The White House asked the committee to suspend the vote without first providing an explanation, but later told the Coindesk that he lobbyed the White House to impose that hold. The CFTC is set to become the leading spot market regulator for Crypto in the US, and is currently at the helm of Chairman Caroline Pham, who intends to leave the agency after the Quintenz nomination and the absence of other commissioners. The potential lack of leadership when an agency is tasked with new duties can slow or complicate the rules it engages in.

I’ll break it

It is rare for active candidates waiting for a Senate vote to share an exchange with the president with donors, to say the least. Quintenz said in his post that he “didn’t have a tendency to publish private messages,” but President Donald Trump believed that “may have been misunderstood.”

“Here we have posted a message that Tyler Winklevoss has posted with questions relating to his previous lawsuit with the CFTC,” he said. “I believe these texts make it clear what they are asking for from me and that I refused to make a promise. It is my understanding that after this exchange they contacted the President and asked them to pause my confirmation for reasons other than those reflected in these texts.”

Texts he shared showed that he exchanged messages with Winklevoss on July 24th and 25th. The first postponed vote in the Senate Agriculture Committee was scheduled for July 21, with the rescheduled vote being July 28.

A spokesperson for Gemini and the Senate Agriculture Committee did not reply to requests for comment and could not reach White House press officials. Quintenz refused to comment beyond his post when Coindesk reached earlier this week.

The message revolves around Gemini’s complaints against CFTC inspectors and was linked to the CFTC case against the exchange that was resolved earlier this year. Winclevos asked Quintenz for thought about the complaint, but Quintenz repeatedly stated that a “fully confirmed chair” would be better to consider the issue.

It is unclear from the message whether Winklevoss was seeking Quid Pro Quo (he said Quintenz asked for support), or whether Quintenz is trying to confirm with his own satisfaction that Winklevoss described as a “Lawfare” for Gemini or otherwise would make the institution more industry-friendly.

At the end of Quintenz, his apocalypse was likely a political Survines – if he had made some form of commitment, he might have had to refuse to be involved in the matter when he actually reached the agency. If he makes a commitment and it’s made public before the Senate vote, then if there’s discussion about his nomination, it’s probably going to be a hot topic. Quintenz also said in the message, “Nothing is close to the big picture of what’s going on inside the building,” and “I decided to wait until I can enter that role to get that view, rather than trying to get it through current leadership.”

Timing of Quintenz’s confirmation vote – he needs both the Senate Agriculture Committee to move him forward, and the whole Senate is keeping the issue in place to confirm him. But the fact that he felt that posting these messages would be useful for his cause is a sign of how slow the process has been.

Monday

• There are no hearings or votes scheduled for this week.

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Check out ya’ll next week!