# Patrick McHenry **Patrick McHenry** represented North Carolina's 10th District for twenty years (2005–2025) and ended his career as chairman of the **House Financial Services Committee**, the committee that writes the rules for banks, securities markets and crypto. He did not seek reelection in 2024. Within a year he was advising three of the industries he had legislated for. ## In Congress - **Leadership.** Chief deputy whip, then chairman of Financial Services for the 118th Congress (2023–2025). He had earlier chaired its Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. - **Speaker pro tempore.** When the House removed [[Kevin McCarthy]] as Speaker in October 2023, McHenry was next on McCarthy's confidential succession list and ran the House as Speaker pro tempore for the three weeks it took Republicans to elect a successor. - **Crypto.** He led House passage of **FIT21** (the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act) in May 2024, with 71 Democrats voting yes, including Nancy Pelosi. The bill would have moved most crypto-token oversight from the [[SEC]] to the [[CFTC]], the agency friendlier to the industry. Its framework carried forward into the [[CLARITY Act]]. He also negotiated stablecoin legislation with ranking Democrat [[Maxine Waters]]. ## After Congress | Date | Role | |---|---| | Feb 2025 | Senior adviser, [[Andreessen Horowitz]] (a16z), the largest crypto venture investor. "It's time to level the playing field and ensure that Little Tech gets a fair shot." | | Apr 2025 | Senior adviser, Lazard, on financial services, fintech and AI policy. | | Jan 2026 | Senior adviser, [[Coalition for Prediction Markets]], alongside Democratic CEO [[Sean Patrick Maloney]]. | The coalition's whole case is that prediction markets belong to the CFTC, not the states. That is the same jurisdictional choice FIT21 made for crypto, and McHenry is selling it again from the outside. His pitch to Roll Call: "My hope is there is a clear understanding that this is a well-regulated marketplace." ## See also - [[Coalition for Prediction Markets]] · [[Sean Patrick Maloney]] · [[Brian Quintenz]] - [[CFTC]] · [[CLARITY Act]] · [[Prediction Markets]] · [[Revolving Door]]