Dan Berkovitz, a Democratic member of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, will leave the Wall Street regulator next month.
Berkovitz’s exit, which he announced in a statement Thursday, will leave the five-person U.S. derivatives regulator with only two members. Rostin Behnam, another Democrat on the panel, is expected to be President Biden’s pick to lead the CFTC. Dawn Stump, a Republican commissioner, is remaining in her seat.
During the Trump administration, Berkovitz clashed with the agency’s chairman Heath Tarbert over policy issues, including the CFTC’s decision to
“It’s never easy to leave,” Berkovitz said in an interview, declining to say what he plans to do next. “It’s just the right time for me to make that change.”
Berkovitz, who plans to leave Oct. 15, served as the CFTC’s general counsel during the Obama administration when the agency wrote rules to regulate the swaps market in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. He’s also been a partner at WilmerHale law firm in Washington.
Recently, Berkovitz has raised concerns over a fast-growing corner of crypto known as DeFi, or decentralized finance.
The CFTC oversees crypto derivatives, and in a June speech Berkovitz urged regulators to “be prepared to protect the public against misuse” of the new technologies.
