The Most Influential Folks in Crypto Regulations

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon, AUSA Nicholas Roos and the rest of the prosecutors who ran the case against Sam Bankman-Fried – Obviously this group needs no introduction; just last month, they secured a conviction on seven different counts of fraud and conspiracy against FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried. During a press conference hours after the jury returned its verdict, Williams warned that his team would continue to go after any wrongdoing they found.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried – While Bankman-Fried himself hasn’t seen much in a crypto regulatory sense this year, the aftermath of his companies’ collapse still looms large over the broader industry and how both regulators and lawmakers engage with the sector.

New York Department of Financial Services Superintendent Adrienne Harris – NYDFS has been an influential overseer for crypto companies in New York for years, but Harris continues to build out rules for the space.

New York Attorney General Letitia James – The NYAG’s office has been on the industry’s radar since announcing its inquiry into Tether and Bitfinex, but it’s brought a lot more suits this year that hint at how James’ office might be looking at the space more broadly. Namely, its suits against Kucoin, Gemini and Digital Currency Group point to an effort to widen the NYAG’s authority and oversight over crypto.

State regulators, including Joe Rotunda, Amanda Senn, Tung Chan, Clothilde Hewlett and many, many more – While federal regulators get most of the attention, state regulators have been very active the past few years, including this year, bringing actions against companies like Coinbase.

Ripple General Counsel Stuart Alderoty – While Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse was on CD’s official list, I think it’s worth noting the legal mind at Ripple who got the company to July’s ruling.

Grayscale General Counsel Craig Salm and outside counsel Donald Verrilli Jr. – Ditto the Grayscale team, which successfully argued that an SEC rejection of its bitcoin exchange-traded fund conversion application was “arbitrary.”

Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Rostin Behnam and Commissioners Kristin Johnson, Caroline Pham, Christy Goldsmith-Romero and Summer Mersinger – The CFTC doesn’t get tagged as a regulator bringing a lot of enforcement actions, but it kind of has, winning – for example – last year’s Ooki DAO case.

Securities and Exchange Commission Commissioners Hester Peirce, Mark Uyeda, Caroline Crenshaw and Jaime Lizárraga – It’s also worth remembering that while SEC staff can put together an enforcement action, a majority of commissioners need to agree before it actually gets filed.

CFTC and SEC staff – behind the scenes, these are the folks who do a lot of the work on enforcement actions, rulemaking, etc.