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Crypto industry antagonist Gary Gensler’s days as Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair are numbered. Gensler's last day will be on January 20, 2025 as Donald Trump takes office, as announced last week, with the departure expected one way or another following Trump's win.
The president-elect is poised to hammer home one of his most popular crypto promises made earlier this year. At least, that's what many in the industry are hoping for.
“I will fire Gary Gensler on day one,” Trump declared at a Bitcoin conference in July, prompting thunderous applause from thousands in Nashville. “The day I take the oath of office, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ anti-crypto crusade will be over.”
Trump won't have to fire Gensler, it turns out, as the SEC chair is resigning instead. And with Gensler now officially headed for the door, the names of several potential replacements are making the rounds ahead of Trump's inauguration on January 20.
That list includes Hester Peirce and Mark Uyeda, both SEC commissioners; Dan Gallagher, Robinhood’s chief counsel; former chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Chris Giancarlo; and former Binance.US CEO Brian Brooks. Some have already signaled that they don't want the job, however.
Here's a look at the potential candidates and what they've said about their interest in the role, if anything.
John Stark, an ardent crypto skeptic who once served as an SEC enforcement attorney, made the case for Peirce after Election Day.
“Most of the time, they just resign because they know that a new chair is going to be appointed,” Stark said. “The president will then immediately appoint someone to be acting chair, and that will usually be the senior member of that party.”
Nicknamed “Crypto Mom” for her support of the industry, Peirce has disagreed with the SEC’s penchant for suing crypto companies since she was appointed in 2018. Dissenting against an NFT-focused enforcement action in September, she derided the SEC’s approach as “misguided and overreaching,” creating many needless cases.
Peirce did not respond to a request for comment from Decrypt.
Of the SEC’s five current commissioners, three belong to the Democratic Party, including Gensler. Meanwhile, Peirce’s Republican colleague, Uyeda, who was appointed in 2022, is also being pitched as a potential contender.
“I’d give decent odds to Uyeda,” Jake Chervinsky, chief legal officer at Variant Fund, said in a tweet after Election Day, adding that he thinks Peirce doesn’t want the job. He caveated, however, “I expect Trump may prefer to bring in someone new of his own.”
With Trump’s transition team co-chaired by Cantor Fitzgerald Chairman and CEO Howard Lutnick, an outside pick to lead the SEC appears possible Fitzgerald views Wall Street as ripe for top cabinet positions, POLITICO reported Wednesday.
Robinhood’s Chief Legal Officer Gallagher would be a “natural choice,” according to one former SEC official who spoke with POLITICO. Formerly serving as an SEC commissioner from 2011 to 2015, Gallagher testified before Congress earlier this year about digital asset regulation and a lack of “regulatory clarity at the federal level.”
After injecting over $119 million into federal elections this year, some leaders of digital asset firms are making calls of their own for Gensler’s replacement. Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse encouraged Trump to appoint Gallagher as SEC chair on Wednesday, as well as Brooks or Giancarlo.
“They’d be massive upgrades in rebuilding the rule of law (and reputation) at the SEC,” Garlinghouse said. “Fire Gensler. Day 1, no delays.”
But there's one problem: Gallagher says he doesn't want the gig. On November 22, Gallagher put out a statement saying he "has made it clear that I do not wish to be considered for this position."
Nicknamed “Crypto Dad” for his commitment to digital assets as chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) from 2017 to 2019, Giancarlo now works as senior counsel and co-chair of Willkie’s Digital Works practice.
While Giancarlo led the CFTC, bitcoin futures became approved on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. At the same time, he cultivated a “Do No Harm” approach to the digital assets industry, according to the conservative law group Federalist Society.
But like Gallagher, Giancarlo said that he's not seeking the SEC Chair role, after previously picking up for Gensler at the CFTC.
“I’ve made clear that I’ve already cleaned up an earlier Gary Gensler mess,” he wrote on Twitter (aka X). “[I] don’t want to have to do it again.”
Brooks—who hasn’t yet earned a paternalistic moniker from the digital assets industry—most notably served as acting comptroller of the currency. Leading the independent arm of the U.S. Treasury Department, he was responsible for chartering, regulating, and supervising national banks.
From 2018 to 2020, Brooks served as chief legal officer for the crypto exchange Coinbase. After departing Washington, he also served as CEO of Binance.US, leaving the American company after four months due to “differences over strategic direction.”
Notably, Coinbase and Binance.US—alongside Binance and the exchange’s co-founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao—face ongoing SEC lawsuits, which allege both firms breached its regulatory rules
But with a Trump-led change in SEC leadership, former SEC official Stark said a shift in the agency’s stance would almost be certain.
“Does this mean that the SEC’s war on crypto is over?” he asked on Thursday. “I would say ‘absolutely,’ with a resounding ‘yes.’”
Teresa Goody Guillén, who once served as an SEC litigator, is currently a partner at the law firm BakerHostetler, where she co-leads its blockchain team. As someone with years of government experience and crypto-focused expertise, Trump’s transition team has recently considered the lawyer as a potential successor to Gensler as SEC Chair, per CoinDesk.
In 2022, Goody Guillén told Decrypt that the SEC’s framework for regulating digital assets invites confusion on the part of market participants. She said there’s a real need for more robust guidance, and that the industry may be chilled amid aggressive enforcement actions.
Referencing Gensler and former SEC Chair Jay Clayton, Goody Guillén said there’s added confusion in the industry when it comes to statements made as a matter of personal opinion by SEC leaders. For example, SEC leaders had said publicly at the time that Bitcoin is not a security, but the regulator hadn’t put that opinion forth as an official determination.
Goody Guillén did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Decrypt.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair and Andrew Hayward
Editor's note: This story was originally published on November 7, 2024. It was last updated with new details on November 24.
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