Caroline D. Pham, Acting Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), has announced her departure from public service, effective December 22, 2025.
Pham began her tenure as a CFTC Commissioner on April 14, 2022, following nomination by the President and unanimous confirmation by the U.S. Senate. She was appointed Acting Chairman on January 20, 2025, after President Donald J. Trump’s inauguration.
“It has been the honor of a lifetime to lead the CFTC during such a historic moment for market structure and innovation,” said Acting Chairman Pham. “I am incredibly proud of the CFTC and all its dedicated staff for their hard work and commitment this year to deliver on our pledge to get back to basics and regular order. As I said at the beginning of the year, as the CFTC celebrates our 50th anniversary, we have always served our mission to promote market integrity and liquidity in the commodity derivatives markets that are critical to the real economy and global trade — ensuring American growers, producers, merchants, and other commercial end-users can mitigate risks to their business and support strong U.S. economic growth.
“This year, we also refocused on our mandate to promote responsible innovation and fair competition as the CFTC prepares to take on expanded oversight of new markets and new products like digital assets, crypto, and prediction markets. I am deeply grateful for the CFTC’s expertise, experience, and care in safeguarding the public’s trust while championing progress, growth, and access to markets. I am thrilled to welcome Michael Selig as the 16th Chairman of the CFTC. His pragmatic, common sense approach will ensure the CFTC strikes the right balance of innovation and market integrity.”
During her time at the agency, Pham advocated for reforms aimed at protecting constitutional rights while increasing due process and transparency within regulatory processes. She led efforts focused on providing regulatory clarity for market participants through targeted adjustments in regulations governing swaps and derivatives under longstanding frameworks such as Dodd-Frank.
Pham introduced a framework designed for self-reporting compliance issues in enforcement actions—intended both to encourage cooperation from regulated entities when addressing non-compliance—and advanced innovations in trading structures including perpetual contracts, continuous trading hours (24/7), and prediction markets.
Her leadership saw initiatives such as launching a “Crypto Sprint” program based on recommendations from presidential working groups regarding digital asset markets; this included milestones like enabling spot crypto trading on registered futures exchanges with pilot programs supporting digital asset market development.
Pham also oversaw modernization efforts within the commission itself by deploying an automated surveillance system intended to reduce costs significantly—reportedly saving close to $50 million annually—and reorganizing internal operations for greater efficiency.
Additional measures implemented under her leadership provided regulatory relief estimated at tens of billions of dollars’ worth of capital savings across industry participants each year; these changes were aimed at stimulating economic growth while reducing burdens associated with compliance requirements.
Michael Selig will succeed Pham as chairman of the commission.
