Blockchain Association Names Kristin Smith Interim CEO as Mersinger Steps Down

Summer Mersinger is stepping down as CEO of the Blockchain Association, one of the crypto industry’s leading advocacy groups, a week after the sector’s major setback in Washington: the failure of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act. Kristin Smith, the association’s founding CEO who led the group from its 2018 launch until 15 months ago, will return on an interim basis. The handover takes effect October 16.

Why Mersinger Is Leaving

The change closes an eventful stretch that included major crypto wins in Washington and last week’s defeat, when the Senate failed to advance the Clarity Act in a vote where all Senate Democrats and some Republicans declined support. Mersinger, who took the CEO role after leaving her post as a CFTC commissioner, said she’s proud of the progress made, from the GENIUS Act to added regulatory clarity at the SEC and CFTC, and called the association well positioned under Smith.

Kristin Smith Returns to the Blockchain Association

Smith left the Blockchain Association last year to become president of the newly formed Solana Policy Institute, though she kept her seat as BA board president. She will keep her Solana Policy Institute role while serving as interim CEO. Smith credited Mersinger with leading the group through what she called the most consequential moment in crypto policy history, having joined shortly before the GENIUS Act became the first major US crypto law and steering the group through intense activity at the SEC and her former agency, the CFTC.