It took just ten days. After the Senate blocked the Clarity Act, two of the best-known crypto figures in Washington published the dates they will leave their posts. Neither of them referred to the bill.
On Friday, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce and Blockchain Association CEO Summer Mersinger announced they are leaving. Peirce’s last day is Oct. 2, and Mersinger will step down Oct. 16.
Neither statement mentions the timing, but it stands out. The Clarity Act was the market structure bill the industry had pursued for years. Now both the head of its main lobbying group and the regulator who led the SEC’s crypto work are leaving.
The SEC gets thin
Of the two exits, Peirce’s does more to change how things are set up. According to the agency’s roster, the SEC will be left with only two commissioners once she leaves: Chairman Paul Atkins and Mark Uyeda.
Her departure was already expected. In May, Regent University’s law school said she would join its faculty in November. Friday’s news was the date. In her resignation letter to President Trump, she named Oct. 2 as her final day.
Peirce joined the SEC as a commissioner in 2018 and was chosen to lead the agency’s Crypto Task Force. Her letter called letting people choose freely within “sensible regulatory parameters” a “delicate and vitally important task for the regulator.”
A familiar face returns at the Blockchain Association
Mersinger will stay involved for a while. The trade group said she will remain as an advisor until the end of the year.
Her successor has done the job before. Kristin Smith, who was the group’s first hire in 2018 and led it until 2025, comes back as interim CEO on Oct. 17. She is currently president of the association’s board.
Mersinger is a former CFTC commissioner who became CEO in June 2025. She held the role only briefly, but the group says she led its work on the GENIUS Act, the stablecoin law President Trump signed in July 2025. The association also cites regulatory progress such as the joint SEC-CFTC interpretation that most crypto assets are not securities in themselves.
“I came here from the CFTC because I believed this industry deserved clear rules of the road and a credible, unified voice making the case for them in Washington,” Mersinger said in the release.
Those words read differently now that the rules of the road the industry wanted most have stalled in the Senate.
Circle’s shake-up lands the same day
The departures went beyond Washington. Also on Friday, stablecoin issuer Circle said CFO Jeremy Fox-Geen will leave by the end of December. He spent more than five years at the company, a stretch that included its $1.2 billion IPO.
In a securities filing, Circle said co-founder P. Sean Neville has also resigned from its board for personal reasons, effective immediately.
For anyone following who speaks for crypto in Washington, Oct. 2 and Oct. 16 are the dates to note. After them, the SEC will have two commissioners, the industry's main trade group will have an interim chief, and the bill both were working around will still be blocked.