US President Donald Trump has chosen Ms. Caroline Pham - a Vietnamese-American woman who is a member of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the agency that regulates virtual currencies in the US - as Acting Chairwoman of this Commission, Vietnam Plus reported.
The decision was made by Mr. Trump on his first day in office, January 20. Later that day, five CFTC members voted to approve the position of Acting Chairman of Ms. Caroline Pham, replacing Mr. Rostin Behnam - who announced his resignation as Chairman of CFTC starting January 20 and will leave the agency on February 7, until the US Senate approves a new leader of CFTC.
This is a routine procedure whenever the US President appoints this temporary position.
In a statement, Ms. Caroline Pham expressed her honor to be selected by the new US President for the above position and said: “I thank President Trump for his confidence in me and I also thank my colleagues and CFTC staff for their support. I look forward to working with everyone involved in this new role as we focus on the CFTC’s mission to promote well-functioning markets that support economic growth and US competitiveness.”
Ms. Caroline Pham was born and raised in the Central Valley of California, nominated by former President Joe Biden as CFTC Commissioner in December 2021, approved by the entire Senate on March 2, 2022, and sworn in on April 14, 2022.
Prior to that, she worked for more than seven years for Citigroup Inc.
According to Bloomberg, Ms. Caroline Pham is currently one of the candidates for the official position of CFTC chairman, along with two other candidates: Ms. Summer Mersinger - a senior Republican staffer in CFTC and Mr. Brian Quintenz - a former Republican CFTC commissioner, who is in charge of policy at "a16z Crypto", part of the Andreessen Horowitz investment fund.
In Vietnam, representatives of the State Bank have repeatedly sent out the message: Bitcoin and other similar virtual currencies are not legal currencies and payment methods in Vietnam. The issuance, supply, and use of Bitcoin and other similar cryptocurrencies as payment methods are acts that are not in accordance with current laws.
