President Donald Trump’s pick to be chairman of the U.S. commodities watchdog, Brian Quintenz, fielded crypto questions more than any other topic at his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday, and he assured the lawmakers that the agency can walk a middle ground between unhampered innovation and robust consumer safeguards.

Even as Quintenz awaits the Senate Agriculture Committee’s vote on whether to advance his nomination as chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Congress is working on market structure legislation that could elevate that agency as the marquee regulator of U.S. crypto activity. Quintenz, a former CFTC commissioner, is no stranger to that sector, having served as venture capital firm a16z’s head of policy.

«I have always viewed market structure legislation as an opportunity to be both pro-customer protection and pro-innovation at the same time,» he told the senators weighing his nomination, which ultimately needs to be approved by the overall Senate before he can take over the commission. He said the bill could «provide the clarity to buildings, entrepreneurs, innovators to develop products» while also ensuring the regulated firms are appropriately protecting the users of those products.

«Congress should create an appropriate market regulatory regime to ensure that this technology’s full promise can be realized, and I am fully prepared to use my experience and expertise to assist in that effort as well in executing any expanded mission should legislation pass into law,» Quintenz said, adding that he’s willing to work under the CFTC’s current powers «to provide clarity of how the agency’s statutory objectives could be successfully leveraged through this technology.»

Quintenz would join a commission that’s being abandoned by commissioners. By statute, the CFTC has five members — with three from the party in power — but the members have left or are in the process of leaving, including Acting Chairman Caroline Pham, who said she’s leaving when Quintenz starts work. The lone Democrat, Kristen Johnson, said she’ll depart «later this year,» leaving some uncertainty about her timing. So Quintenz may serve opposite a single Democrat before eventually working alone for a time, leaving potential legal vulnerability for any unilateral policies.

Some of the Democratic senators noted the Trump administration has been systematically stripping regulatory commissions of their Democratic members — described by Senator Raphael Warnock as «political purges» — and asked Quintenz if he would encourage the White House to fill both sides of the roster.

«The president is the head of the executive, and the president will make his own decisions. Quintenz said. He later added, «I don’t tell the president what to do.»

He granted that the agency may need more funding if it’s assigned the monumental new task as the regulator of digital commodities spot markets, which would include transactions of bitcoin BTC. Quintenz said that new staff would be made more efficient by «a technology-first approach» that makes the employees more efficient.

Quintenz also fielded a number of questions on the prediction markets, another area he’s had direct experience with as a board member of Kalshi, which fought a legal battle with the CFTC over the regulation of event contracts. He defended such event contracts as an appropriate «hedging tool.»

«I believe the Commodity Exchange Act is very clear about the purpose of derivatives markets, the purpose of risk management and price discovery, and that events [contracts] can serve a function in that mandate,» he said.

Read More: Trump to Tap Former CFTC Commissioner, a16z Policy Head Brian Quintenz for CFTC Head

Solana SOL surged 5% in after U.S. hours on Tuesday on a Blockworks report saying that U.S. regulators are moving forward in the regulatory process necessary to make spot SOL exchange-traded funds (ETF) reality.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reportedly asked prospective issuers to amend their S-1 filings in the next week, according to the story, and will comment on the paperwork in the next 30 days after submission.

SOL jumped above $164 in the minutes following the report, up nearly 5% over the past 24 hours.

After the debut of bitcoin BTC and ether ETH spot ETFs in the U.S. last year, asset managers are racing to get regulatory approval to launch similar vehicles for smaller cryptocurrencies, offering traditional investors easier access to invest in digital assets. Several asset managers have filed applications with the SEC to launch funds holding SOL, including Fidelity, Grayscale, Franklin Templeton and VanEck.

Ether (ETH) ETH began the 24-hour session around $2,576 in early Asian trading, briefly dipped to $2,562 on light volume, then saw buying interest surge around 21:00 UTC on June 9 as turnover topped 436,000 coins, according to CoinDesk Research’s technical analysis model.

A second wave of demand just before 11:00 UTC on June 10 drove ether through the $2,700 barrier to a 24-hour high of $2,783; by press time it was trading at $2,744.87, up 6.54 percent on 560,900 coins (US$1.51 billion) moved.

Social sentiment has turned decidedly bullish. A popular trader on X said the move amounted to ether entering a true “beast mode” phase after brushing aside $1,500 and $2,200 barriers and forecast further upside toward $4,000 and beyond.

In an X thread on June 3, Consensys founder Joseph Lubin portrayed Etheruem as a nonstop settlement layer that processed over $25 trillion in transactions last year and serves as the backbone for stablecoins, tokenized assets, native yield and DeFi. He added that a $425 million private placement into SharpLink Gaming (SBET) aims to expose traditional investors to those yield opportunities.

Meanwhile, in a market note, QCP Capital pointed to the advancing GENIUS Act, renewed buzz around Circle’s IPO and increasing regulatory clarity for stablecoins as converging tailwinds that could drive outsized structural gains for Ether’s tokenization and settlement rails.

On-chain fundamentals also bolster the bullish case: staked ether recently reached a record 34.65 million tokens — locking up roughly 28.7 percent of supply — and may tighten bids around current support near $2,720.

Technical Analysis Highlights

• Ether staged two volume-backed breakouts: first above $2,600 on June 9 (436K ETH traded), then above $2,700 on June 10 (560.9K ETH).
• A clear series of higher lows and higher highs underpins a strong uptrend from $2,562 to $2,783.
• A high-volume supply zone now sits at $2,796, marking near-term resistance.
• A double-bottom formed between $2,720–$2,740 may support consolidation before the next leg higher.

Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk’s full AI Policy.