Nominate Satoshi Nakamoto and see who shows up for the confirmation hearing.
UPDATE: Trump has nominated his former SEC boss Jay Clayton for U.S. Atty, SDNY. USA Today reported two days prior to the SDNY nomination being announced:
NEW YORK Nov 13 (Reuters) - Congress is likely to adopt legislation governing cryptocurrencies during President-elect Donald Trump's administration, Jay Clayton, a former top Wall Street regulator and potential political appointee, said on Wednesday.
Clayton also said he favored easing regulatory burdens to encourage companies to go public, remarks foreshadowing broad-based changes in public policy now anticipated by industry, which spent heavily to influence this month's elections.
"I think we will see crypto legislation," Clayton told a gathering of securities lawyers in New York. "I think it becomes much easier to have crypto legislation if you're tackling some of these problems that can be tackled at the executive and the administrative level."
Under President Joe Biden, regulators have pursued aggressive enforcement actions against crypto companies and have declined to adopt regulations called for by industry.
Clayton, who is in contention for a role in Trump's second administration including attorney general, also described sharp differences with the Biden administration's approach to market regulation and legal enforcement.
Regulations requiring corporate disclosures of climate transition costs, such as those adopted earlier this year by the Securities and Exchange Commission, are "terrible" since they can dissuade companies from going public.
"If you're thinking about entering the public markets and you're seeing that working its way through the system, you're like, 'Really? I gotta gather all this data that has nothing to do with how I run my business?'" Clayton said.
Break here. Crypto is energy intensive, so it impacts climate greatly in its demand for electricity. This is not "ancillary" to how the business is run. It is inherent. See, e.g., report: https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/09-2022-Crypto-Assets-and-Climate-Report.pdf
Clayton also said recent Supreme Court precedents that have curtailed the executive branch's powers should encourage regulators to review existing litigation and regulations to see if they remain "viable."
CoinDesk reported in 2021:
Crypto custody provider Fireblocks has tapped former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Jay Clayton as a member of its board of advisors.
Clayton will work with Fireblocks on addressing market structure and customer needs, including support and deployment for the firm's security technology, the company announced on Thursday. Clayton, who stepped down from his role at the SEC in December, is also on the board of Apollo Global Management and an adviser to One River Digital Asset Management.
Fireblocks provides software security solutions to custody digital assets, including multi-party computation (MPC) services. The company also provides tools to speed up or otherwise streamline digital asset transaction settlement.
The move comes a month after Fireblocks raised more than $300 million in a Series D funding round that valued the company at $2 billion. DRW, Sequoia Capital, Spark Capital, Stripes and Coatue participated in the funding round.
Fireblocks counts the digital bank Revolut, BNY Mellon and the yet-to-be-launched diem stablecoin as some of its high-profile clients.
A number of former top government officials have been taking on roles in the digital asset sector since returning to private life. Former Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chair Chris Giancarlo became an adviser to both the Chamber of Digital Commerce and BlockFi, and is one of the leaders of the Digital Dollar Foundation.
Reuters, Nov. 14, reports Clayton being with Sullivan & Cromwell, when appointed.
The Block, Sept, 14, 2024:
Former SEC Chair Jay Clayton says the crypto industry is 'pushing US market infrastructure forward'
That is a podcast interview "sponsored by Polkadot" which readers can access.
What is apparent is that Clayton is familiar with crypto and has experience in that segment. So, Satoshi at Treasury is still possible, but this seems Trump's crypto appointment, and is moderate compared to other Trump nominations.
Ars Technica recently reported:
The bankruptcy estate of collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX has sued the company's former rival Binance in an attempt to recover $1.76 billion or more.
The Clayton nomination is thought by Crabgrass as restrained, by comparison to Hegseth, Noem, or Gaetz for DOJ. Yet, Sullivan & Cromwell crypto/FTX footprints have been criticized. However, it is reported that S&C has been "cleared" of conflict of interest in its participation in the FTX/Bankman Fried bankruptcy circus.
search = sullivan cromwell crypto binance
That search shows S&C wanting into all aspects of crypto, including compliance monitoring of Binance. Also, Clayton himself has predicted Spot crypto ETF approval by the SEC as "inevitable," which happened. The bottom line seems to be elite lawfirm crypto background, with Clayton being pro-crypto, while being credible in most ways for the job (some have noted Clayton lacks trial experience). Trump was careful with this pick. Are other absurd ones a smokescreen for this one?