White House digital-asset council executive director Patrick Witt leaves, no successor named

Patrick Witt is leaving his post as executive director of the President's Council of Advisors for Digital Assets to return to the private sector, CoinDesk reported on Oct. 18. No successor has been named, and the White House does not currently have a publicly named crypto head.

A White House official told CoinDesk that crypto and the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act would continue to be a focus for Trump. Witt's exit follows the departures of Harry Jung and Bo Hines while the executive branch is still writing digital-asset rules.

The agencies doing that work are the SEC, the CFTC, the OCC and Treasury, per CoinDesk. CoinDesk also reports the midterms are next month, a new Congress is seated next year, and the next attempt at crypto legislation will likely include tax legislation before market structure reform — with a potentially hostile chamber if Democrats flip the House of Representatives.

The Clarity Act fell 49-50 in the Senate in September. That left market-structure definitions to agency dockets.