When will Gary Gensler be fired?

Gensler again tried to justify the regulator’s strategy under his leadership. As Gary noted the day before, at the head of the Commission he had a particular focus on digital assets, requiring parties to “register and properly disclose information to the public”.

That was relevant to the roughly 10,000 tokens that the regulator called unregistered securities.

Congressional representatives have repeatedly stated that Gary Gensler has no right to publicly comment on the classification of a particular digital asset. However, only the court can determine such a thing, and such remarks are only Gensler's personal opinion. However, this did not stop the SEC chairman, who regularly referred to all cryptocurrencies except Bitcoin as securities.

During another annual conference organised by the Legal Practice Institute (PLI), Gensler mentioned that it was under his leadership that the market got Bitcoin-based spot ETFs.

Securities Commission logo

However, some crypto firms are still allegedly “abusing their powers” when it comes to dealing with the regulator. Here’s a quote from Gensler on the matter, as cited by Cointelegraph.

This is an area where investors have been significantly harmed over the years. In addition, beyond speculative investment and possible use for illegal activity, the vast majority of cryptoassets have yet to prove sustainable use. Everything we have done is aimed at enforcing our laws.


It is important to note that the Securities Commission, under the leadership of Gary Gensler, missed the fraud that was perpetrated by the management of crypto exchange FTX. In the end, the collapse of the trading platform ended with investors losing several billion dollars - and they were not protected in any way by the SEC. This situation is relevant because Gensler met with former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, meaning the scam was essentially happening right under his nose.


Current SEC Chairman Gary Gensler

According to The Block’s sources, Gensler still considers the field of altcoins to be insignificant, although he recognises a huge number of them as “unregistered securities”. He continues.

To put this in context, aside from Bitcoin, Etherium and stablecoins, the rest of this market is roughly $600 billion. That’s less than 20 per cent of the entire industry and less than a quarter of one per cent of the global capital market.

Gary's opinions on cryptocurrencies are unlikely to interest anyone. Still, as he confirmed at an April hearing last year, Gensler has never owned digital assets or interacted with blockchains. This came as a surprise, as the official had previously lectured on distributed decentralised registries at the international business school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.

Gensler also left a few remarks about his experience at the SEC.

It has been an honour to serve with them, to do the work for the people and to ensure that our capital markets remain the best in the world. I am proud to work alongside my colleagues at the SEC who work hard every day to protect American families on the financial highways.

Bitcoin and altcoin capitalisation distribution

As a reminder, Trump’s inauguration will take place on 20 January 2025. Until then, the legitimate president of the United States is still Joe Biden, who just approved Gensler for the position of head of the Commission on 14 April 2021. With this in mind, it can be argued that the SEC’s attitude towards digital assets is in line with the US President’s administration.

Trump may not have the authority to remove Gensler from the SEC. Any replacement would require Senate approval, but the Republican has suggested he will try to bypass the House of Representatives by appointing all of his cabinet members and staff during the transition. At the time of publication, Trump had not announced a possible replacement for Gensler, though potential candidates are already in place.

Overnight, Reuters reported that former SEC chief Jay Clayton would take over as SEC chairman. However, that ended up being an erroneous statement, as Clayton will run the U.S. Attorney's office in the Southern District of New York.

One of the likely candidates for the post is former SEC Chairman Jay Clayton

Overall as head of the SEC, Gary Gensler is remembered for his proactive approach to regulating the crypto market and seeking to make it more transparent and accountable.

He proposed tougher requirements for cryptocurrency companies, requiring many tokens to be registered as securities, which sparked controversy in the industry. Particularly high-profile were his proceedings with major crypto exchanges like Coinbase and Binance over their potential non-compliance with securities laws.

SEC head Gary Gensler

We also can’t forget how Gensler and his colleagues failed to prove the XRP cryptocurrency belonged in the category of unregistered securities. The court ruled that the coins are not such when purchased by ordinary retail investors through cryptocurrency exchanges.

Gary Gensler’s best outcome was the filing of a lawsuit last night against the Securities Commission and its commissioners from 18 US states. According to their representatives, the SEC behaved unconstitutionally and on top of that engaged in unfair harassment of the cryptocurrency industry under Gensler’s leadership. So there is a possibility that he will have to answer for his actions.


Gary Gensler's work as head of the SEC has been terrible for the cryptocurrency industry, as most of its representatives admit. Still, the Commission punished companies with fines and courts, but did not want to develop adequate rules for their work. This approach was called regulation through coercion, which is how the regulator's stage of existence under Gensler can be called.
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