Crypto: One Year After Gary Gensler’s Exit, Sec’s Crypto Playbook Looks...

One of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump‘s campaign promises to the crypto industry was to fire the SEC chair “on day one“ if elected.

One year ago Tuesday, Gary Gensler resigned as chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) amid the inauguration of President Donald Trump.

Many in the crypto industry had heavily criticized the former SEC chair for his approach to digital asset regulation and enforcement. Gensler’s position on cryptocurrencies likely contributed to companies like Ripple Labs funding political action committees (PACs) and backing many candidates in the 2024 US elections who had expressed views favorable to the industry and opposing those who didn’t.

Shortly after Gensler’s resignation, Trump appointed SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda as acting chair of the agency. What followed was a complete about-face of SEC policy on digital assets under Gensler, with the dismissal of many yearslong investigations and enforcement actions and the restructuring of the agency’s leadership to include only Republicans.

In February, just over a month after Uyeda assumed control of the SEC under Trump, the agency announced that it would drop a civil enforcement action against Coinbase, initially filed in 2023. The case would be the first of many the SEC would drop against crypto companies, some of which like Coinbase that had contributed to PACs that supported pro-crypto candidates.

Following the Coinbase case, the SEC ended investigations into Robinhood Crypto and Uniswap Labs. One of the agency’s most significant policy changes, however, occurred in March when Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the SEC would drop its appeal stemming from a 2020 enforcement action against the payments company.

Related: SEC crypto cases will be ‘dismissed or settled’ under Trump: Consensys CEO

More dismissals followed in the months under Uyeda and after Trump’s pick to chair the agency, Paul Atkins, was confirmed by the Senate in April. Many lawmakers questioned whether the agency had dropped the actions as a result of Trump’s close ties to the crypto industry.

The president and his family have backed the crypto company World Liberty Financial, which launched its own stablecoin amid consideration of crypto legislation in the US Congress. Trump also has his own memecoin, Official Trump (TRUMP), and his sons launched American Bitcoin, a crypto mining venture.

Some estimates suggested that the president and his family had profited by more than $1 billion fro

Source: CoinTelegraph