US CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam Plans to Resign on Jan. 20

Behnam will leave the commission on Feb. 7, according to a statement Tuesday from the derivative-market regulator.

Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Rostin Behnam will resign from his post on Jan. 20, officially leaving the agency on Feb. 7, according to a statement Tuesday from the derivative-market regulator.

Behnam, who has led the CFTC since early 2022, will step down from his role at the agency as it faces increasing pressure to regulate new markets and asset classes.

"Over the past several years, a multitude of domestic and global events tested the resilience of all financial markets,” Behnam said in the statement. “I am proud that the Commission consistently made deliberate and intentional decisions to ensure continued strength.”

As chairman of the CFTC, Behnam advocated for legislation to make the agency the main Bitcoin regulator and give it oversight of cryptocurrency exchanges. The agency also scrutinized and sometimes tried to block companies that let Americans bet on US election outcomes.

A former aide to Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow, Behnam joined the CFTC as a commissioner in 2017. He became acting chairman in 2021 and was sworn in a year later.

The CFTC has been “stretched thin” as it deals with new markets, asset classes and participants, Behnam said in an Oct. 22 interview with Bloomberg Television.

The next CFTC chair will have to tackle regulating digital assets and so-called event contracts. The latter allows traders to stake money on topics ranging from momentous to ephemeral, such as who will become the Senate majority leader, whether Billie Eilish wins the Grammy award for song of the year and the day’s high temperature in Chicago.

Political prediction markets catapulted into public prominence in the lead-up to the November elections, but the regulatory landscape for them is in limbo due to pending court cases and rule-making efforts.

Behnam, who has said he didn’t want the agency to be an “elections cop,” has waged a losing court fight with Kalshi Inc., a CFTC-regulated exchange that lets US customers bet on political contests.

(Updates with statement from Behnam in the third paragraph.)