Why Crypto Investors Are Happy for SEC Chair Resignation

On January 20th, Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler will be stepping down. He has been a thorn in the side of crypto investors for a while now.

Firing Gensler was one of the actions President-elect Donald Trump promised to do the first day he is in office. Gensler is supposed to stay in office until 2026, which is when his five-year term will be up, and Trump, even as President, will not have the power to simply fire him.

What is likely to happen is that Gensler will resign once the new administration takes over. That is fairly common when there is a changing of the presidential guard, and we expect to see the same thing happen under Trump’s watch. In other words, Trump should not have to fire Gensler, who will likely step down willingly. It would be unusual for an SEC chair to want to stay on board in an environment where there is tremendous pressure to resign and he is obviously not wanted.

Gensler has already announced his departure and told the press that under his watch, the SEC enforced the law without any bias. He said that they were able to recover billions of dollars to investors who were injured while he was chairing the SEC.

What Has the Crypto Industry Rejoicing

The SEC has been attacking a number of companies for money laundering and fraud related to cryptocurrency, and these actions have resulted in billions of dollars in fines being collected. Gensler and the SEC have targeted some of the biggest names in crypto in recent years, including Coinbase and Binance. For the crypto industry, Gensler has become the face of an antagonistic government body that does not want to see crypto thrive.

The crypto industry invested heavily in this year’s election, hoping to see a change in administration so that there would be an ease of pressure on them. For the industry, having Trump in office seems to be a big win, since he has become the “crypto President” simply by making the issue a significant part of his platform.

Since Trump won the election, Bitcoin (BTC) and much of the crypto industry saw tremendous growth, with Bitcoin in particular shooting past previous records to set incredible all-time highs.