The leadership of U.S. crypto regulation at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) will effectively be down to three people after this weekend.

Cointelegraph, a blockchain media outlet, reported on Sept. 29 that the total number of vacant commissioner seats at the two agencies will rise to seven after Republican SEC commissioner Hester Peirce leaves office on Sept. 27.

Peirce served at the SEC for eight years. She was known in the industry as “Crypto Mom” for her crypto-friendly stance. Her departure comes about two months before the end of an 18-month extension of her second term. After she steps down, the SEC will be left with Chair Paul Atkins and Mark Uyeda. It is the second time in U.S. history that the five-member SEC will operate with two commissioners.

The CFTC situation is even simpler. Chair Michael Selig has been the sole commissioner since the departure of former acting chair Caroline Pham in December 2025. That leaves the standing leadership overseeing and enforcing crypto regulation at the two U.S. financial regulators at two at the SEC and one at the CFTC. The outlet pointed to the agencies as key authorities overseeing parts of the $3 trillion crypto industry.

Under federal law, U.S. President Donald Trump has the authority to fill the vacancies. The White House has not yet announced plans for additional nominations to the SEC and CFTC. A White House official said it intends to nominate commissioners to both agencies in the near future. Specific candidates were not disclosed. A CNBC report on Sept. 4 said the White House was reviewing four candidates to fill CFTC vacancies, but did not name them.

In politics, critics have said the bipartisan structure of the regulators is weakening. Senate Democrats said in a letter sent in June to President Trump and Senate Majority Leader John Thune that “Congress designed boards and commissions to be bipartisan and granted them authority to regulate the most important and core areas of American life.” They added that “the Trump administration appears to be seeking to maintain complete control over these agencies with little interest in working in good faith with Congress.”

The issue is that crypto regulation is continuing even as the leadership sits vacant. With Congress unable to pass legislation, the two agencies are adjusting the scope of oversight through rulemaking and interpretations of existing law rather than new statutes. Earlier this month, the industry expected passage of the Clarity Act, a digital asset market clarification bill, but it was rejected in the Republican-controlled Senate.

The bill would have shifted some digital asset regulatory authority currently held by the SEC to the CFTC. After the bill failed, the two agencies are each sorting out the scope of federal law in different ways. The SEC issued staff guidance on investment contracts, and the CFTC detailed how companies can use blockchain for recordkeeping.

Against this backdrop, attention is narrowing to two points. The first is how quickly the White House fills the vacancies. The second is whether the interpretations and guidance issued separately by the SEC and the CFTC become standards for the crypto market while congressional lawmaking is stalled. If leadership posts are not filled, U.S. crypto regulation is more likely for now to operate under a small-commissioner structure and competing agency interpretations.