The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has named 35 members to its new Innovation Advisory Committee, filling the panel with a striking concentration of cryptocurrency executives alongside traditional finance leaders.
Chainlink Labs chief executive officer Sergey Nazarov is among the appointees - but so are the CEOs of Coinbase, Ripple (XRP), Uniswap (UNI) Labs, Robinhood, Gemini, Kraken, and Solana (SOL) Labs.
Who's on the Panel
The committee replaces the CFTC's former Technology Advisory Committee and grew from 12 initial charter members to 35 under Chairman Michael Selig.
Roughly 20 of the 35 appointees have direct cryptocurrency industry ties, according to The Block. The crypto side includes Brian Armstrong (Coinbase), Brad Garlinghouse (Ripple), Hayden Adams (Uniswap Labs), Vlad Tenev (Robinhood), Anatoly Yakovenko (Solana Labs), Tyler Winklevoss (Gemini), and Shayne Coplan (Polymarket), among others.
Traditional finance is represented by Terry Duffy of CME Group, Adena Friedman of Nasdaq, Frank LaSalla of DTCC, and executives from Intercontinental Exchange, Cboe Global Markets, and the Options Clearing Corporation.
Venture capital firms a16z crypto and Paradigm also hold seats.
Read also: Anchorage And Kamino Build A Bridge Between Regulated Custody And On-Chain Solana Lending
What the Committee Does
The IAC will advise the CFTC on how blockchain, artificial intelligence, and other technologies are changing derivatives and commodity markets.
Its agenda is expected to cover asset tokenization, cryptocurrency derivatives, 24/7 trading, and prediction markets.
The formation comes as the CFTC and the SEC run a joint initiative called "Project Crypto," aimed at clarifying how digital asset oversight will be divided between the two agencies.
Why It Matters
The committee's composition raises a persistent question in financial regulation: whether industry-dominated advisory panels produce better rules or grant outsized influence to the companies most likely to be regulated.
The CFTC stands to gain expanded jurisdiction over cryptocurrency spot markets if the stalled CLARITY Act becomes law.
Many of the executives now advising the agency on regulatory innovation run firms that would fall directly under that authority.
Nazarov, in a statement, said Chainlink's inclusion showed that oracle networks were being "recognized as core market infrastructure."
That framing may be premature - advisory committee membership carries no rulemaking power, and the panel's recommendations are non-binding.
Read next: Binance Fired Investigators Who Flagged $1B In Iran-Linked USDT Flows, Report Says