The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has appointed Coinbase vice president Dorothy DeWitt as its new market supervisor.
In a press release on Tuesday, CFTC chairman Heath Tarbert named DeWitt as the new director of the Division of Market Oversight (DMO), which is responsible for managing derivatives platforms and products, including bitcoin futures.
Giving credits to her over two decades of experience in the financial and legal fields, Tarbert said that DeWitt’s “strong investment, risk, legal and compliance background and familiarity with distributed ledger technology, including crypto assets, will be invaluable as the agency looks to develop a holistic approach to regulating 21st century commodities.”
With her new role, DeWitt is expected to evaluate and potentially approve new bitcoin derivatives products in the U.S., according to a report by CoinDesk. DMO has previously looked into the different bitcoin futures proposals of Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Cboe, and Bakkt.
DeWitt, who is also Coinbase’s general counsel for business lines and markets, has previously served at Citadel Securities, S&P Global, and Davis Polk & Wardwell. She also used to be a portfolio manager.
She succeeded former DMO director Amir Zaidi who served the CFTC for over 9 years and supervised the first bitcoin futures contract that entered the crypto space in late 2017.
Meanwhile, former CFTC chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo has joined the board of advisors of the Chamber of Digital Commerce. He served as a CFTC chairman for 2 years and as a CFTC commissioner from 2014 until his departure in July. Giancarlo is known for his moniker “Crypto Dad.”
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