The Blockchain Association’s chief executive, Summer Mersinger, will step down on October 16 and hand leadership of the crypto industry’s leading Washington advocacy group back to its founding leader, Kristin Smith, the organization announced in a press release on September 25. Smith, who currently serves as president of the association’s board of directors, will return as interim chief executive on October 17, while Mersinger stays on as an advisor through the end of the year to ease the transition.
A leadership change after the CLARITY Act setback
The handoff lands about ten days after the Senate failed to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act in a 49-50 cloture vote on September 15, a defeat that stalled the industry’s primary push for a comprehensive market structure law. Mersinger joined the Blockchain Association in June 2025 after serving as a commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, bringing years of public service that included senior staff roles in both chambers of Congress and work as an advisor to Senate Majority Leader John Thune.
Mersinger’s tenure delivered the GENIUS Act and regulatory clarity
Under Mersinger’s leadership, the association pressed a dual legislative and regulatory strategy that produced a string of milestones. It backed final passage of the GENIUS Act, the first federal framework for payment stablecoins, which President Trump signed in July 2025, and worked to defend the law from banking-lobby efforts to weaken it. The group was also a leading voice as federal regulators delivered landmark actions, including the joint SEC-CFTC interpretation that most crypto assets are not securities, the SEC’s proposed Regulation Crypto Assets, and the agency’s Innovation Exemption for onchain trading of tokenized securities. The group also reached record engagement levels in 2026, holding more than 300 meetings with congressional and agency staff and leading seven member fly-ins on Capitol Hill.
Smith returns to the organization she built
“Summer took the helm of Blockchain Association at the most consequential moment in the history of crypto policy, and she met it,” Smith said. “Coming back to lead it is personal for me.” Smith was the association’s first employee when it launched in 2018 and led it as chief executive until 2025, building it from a one-person operation into the industry’s main voice in Washington. “Kristin built this Association from the ground up, and BA is in good hands,” Mersinger said. “I’ll be cheering them on.”
