CFTC Chair nominee Brian Quintenz posted several messages he'd exchanged with Tyler Winklevoss, seemingly in a bid to get his nomination process back on track.

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The narrative

On Wednesday, at CoinDesk's Policy and Regulation event, one major topic of conversation was a post from former Commodity Futures Trading Commission Commissioner Brian Quintenz in which he shared chat logs from a conversation with Gemini co-founder and CEO Tyler Winklevoss, an unexpected move from a former public official waiting for the Senate to confirm him to head up the commodities regulator.

Why it matters

Quintenz's path to becoming chair of the CFTC seemed clear until late July, when the Senate Agriculture Committee twice postponed a key vote to advance his nomination. The White House asked the committee to pause the vote without initially providing an explanation, though later Winklevoss told CoinDesk he had lobbied the White House to impose that hold. The CFTC is set to become the primary spot market regulator for crypto in the U.S., and is currently helmed by Acting Chair Caroline Pham, who intends to depart the agency after Quintenz's nomination and no other commissioners. The potential lack of leadership as the agency gets tasked with new mandates could slow down or otherwise complicate any rulemakings it engages in.

Breaking it down

An active nominee awaiting a Senate vote sharing an exchange he had with donors to the president is unusual, to say the least. In his post, Quintenz said he had "never been inclined to release private messages" but that he believed President Donald Trump "might have been misled."

"I've posted here the messages that include the questions Tyler Winklevoss asked me pertaining to their prior litigation with the CFTC," he said. "I believe these texts make it clear what they were after from me, and what I refused to promise. It's my understanding that after this exchange they contacted the president and asked that my confirmation be paused for reasons other than what is reflected in these texts."

The texts he shared showed he had exchanged messages with Winklevoss on July 24 and 25. The first postponed vote in the Senate Agriculture Committee was originally scheduled for July 21, and the rescheduled vote was on July 28 . The White House requested at least the second vote be delayed.

Spokespeople for Gemini and the Senate Agriculture Committee did not return requests for comment, and a White House press official could not be reached. Quintenz declined to comment beyond his post when reached earlier this week by CoinDesk.