Blockchain Association chief Summer Mersinger to leave at year end
Mersinger will step down as CEO on 16 October, with Kristin Smith returning as interim chief, after the CLARITY Act failed a Senate cloture vote.

Key points
- Summer Mersinger will step down as Blockchain Association CEO on 16 October and leave the group at the end of the year.
- Kristin Smith, the association's former chief executive, returns as interim CEO.
- Mersinger joined the Blockchain Association in June 2025 after resigning from the CFTC during her second term.
- The association credited her work on the GENIUS Act and on regulatory clarity at the SEC and CFTC.
- The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act failed a Senate cloture motion earlier this month and may be stalled until 2027.
Summer Mersinger, a former commissioner at the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, will step down as chief executive of the Blockchain Association and leave the advocacy group at the end of the year, CoinTelegraph reports. The move follows a setback in Congress for one of the group's main legislative priorities.
The Blockchain Association said on Friday that Mersinger would leave the CEO role on 16 October. Kristin Smith, who led the organisation before her, will return as interim chief executive. Mersinger joined the association in June 2025, having left the CFTC three years before her second term as a commissioner was due to end.
In a statement on her departure, Mersinger said she had come from the CFTC because she believed the industry deserved clear rules of the road and a credible, unified voice making the case for them in Washington. The association highlighted her work on the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act, known as the GENIUS Act, and her efforts to secure regulatory clarity at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the CFTC.
Leadership change at the association
The group did not mention the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, which is under consideration in the Senate and which the Blockchain Association had repeatedly urged lawmakers to support. The bill failed to win enough votes from Democrats and Republicans in a cloture motion earlier this month. Many experts expect that outcome to leave the legislation in limbo until 2027.
The Blockchain Association did not immediately answer questions about Mersinger's plans for 2027, according to the report. Her exit marks a change of leadership at one of the industry's most prominent Washington advocacy groups at a moment when its central market structure bill has stalled.
Mersinger's tenure at the CFTC included a period when the agency was closely watched for its approach to digital assets. She resigned before her second term ended and moved to the association, which has pushed for legislation setting out how crypto firms are regulated.
Setback for the CLARITY Act
The leadership change comes as stablecoin rules and market structure proposals remain the focus of industry lobbying in Washington. With the CLARITY Act stalled in the Senate, the association's next chief executive will inherit a legislative agenda that has yet to clear Congress.
