With Hester Peirce gone, the SEC and CFTC are down to three of ten seats, and a Forbes analysis says Democrats could demand bipartisan nominees before moving a crypto bill

The two US agencies at the center of crypto rulemaking are running with a skeleton crew. Forbes contributor Tonya Evans writes that the SEC has two of its five commissioners, Chairman Paul Atkins and Mark Uyeda, and the CFTC has one, Chairman Michael Selig. All three are Republicans, and Hester Peirce left the SEC on October 2. Altcoin Buzz reported on October 13 that no nominees had yet been announced.

The agencies are still moving. The SEC amended its quorum rule on September 30, effective October 2, so that when disqualifications leave one or two members in office, that number counts as a quorum for the matter, Altcoin Buzz said. Evans writes that the CFTC has no minimum quorum rule and that Selig has said he is ready to finalize derivatives and prediction market rules alone.

Her analysis looks ahead to Congress. Each agency caps seats at three per party, so at least two seats at each cannot go to the president's party, she writes, which she says gives Democrats leverage to ask for bipartisan nominee slates. She notes the CLARITY Act stalled in the Senate in September and that House Democrats are discussing a new bill with no text released. This is her analysis, not a decision by any official.