CFTC Acting Chairman Caroline Pham to Join Crypto Payments Company MoonPay

Caroline D. Pham, acting chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), will join crypto payments company MoonPay as chief legal officer and chief administrative officer upon the conclusion of her role at the CFTC.

MoonPay announced the appointment in a Wednesday (Dec. 17) press release, saying Pham has overseen “a pivotal year of market modernization, regulatory innovation and groundbreaking digital asset policy” at the CFTC.

Pham was sworn in as a commissioner at the CFTC in 2022 and was unanimously elected acting chairman in January, according to the release.

The U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote Wednesday (Dec. 17) on the nomination of Michael Selig to be chairman of the CFTC, according to the Senate’s executive calendar for the day.

Selig, the chief counsel for the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Crypto Task Force, was nominated by President Donald Trump in April to head the CFTC.

It was reported in May that Pham said she planned to leave the CFTC upon the confirmation of a chairman of the agency.

Pham wrote in a Wednesday post on X: “I’m looking forward to a successful confirmation of Mike Selig as the [CFTC’s] next chairman and a smooth transition once he is sworn in. The future is bright. Onward and upward.”

In MoonPay’s press release, Pham said: “I’m excited to join MoonPay at a pivotal moment.”

When she joins the company, Pham will oversee all its global legal and administrative functions, as well as its policy and regulatory strategy in Washington, D.C., according to the release.

“Caroline is one of the most influential leaders in U.S. financial regulation, helping define the future of digital assets,” MoonPay Co-founder and CEO Ivan Soto-Wright said in the release. “Her unparalleled experience, which combines regulatory expertise, traditional finance and a deep understanding of market structure, makes her the perfect leader to guide MoonPay through our next chapter of growth and compliance excellence.”

When Pham announced a new foreign board of trade (FBOT) advisory from the CFTC in August, she said it was meant to provide regulatory clarity for non-U.S. exchanges and provide American companies that left the country to enable crypto asset trading with a way to participate in American markets.