Dan Berkovitz, one of three commissioners now serving at the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, will join the Securities and Exchange Commission as general counsel.
The Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, announced on September 28 that Berkovitz would start as general counsel on November 1, two weeks after standing down as a commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, where he has served since 2018.
Berkovitz stated that he will collaborate with SEC Chair Gary Gensler on a “regulatory agenda that will strengthen investor protection.”
Berkovitz’s time at the CFTC was supposed to finish in 2023, but he announced in September that he would be leaving on Oct. 15.
Following his departure, US President Joe Biden named Kristin Johnson and Christy Goldsmith Romero to replace former CFTC Chair Heath Tarbert and Brian Quintenz. Berkovitz’s replacement has yet to be appointed by the White House.
Berkovitz said the CFTC’s crypto enforcement actions had been “aggressive” this month, citing a $100 million civil monetary penalty against derivatives exchange BitMEX as an example.
The CFTC commissioner has also intimated that decentralized finance platforms are likely prohibited under the Commodity Exchange Act, claiming that projects in the DeFi field have a “spectrum of centralization” that might make them subject to registration with the federal agency.
Under Gary Gensler’s direction, Berkovitz will serve the American people, arguing that numerous crypto initiatives have developed securities that fall under the SEC’s regulatory framework.
The SEC head stated in August that he aims to implement crypto-related policy reforms in the areas of token offerings, decentralized finance, stablecoins, custody, exchange-traded funds, and lending platforms.
