Crypto players wish for Trump comeback

When former US President Donald Trump promised a bitcoin conference that if reelected he would fire Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, a crypto sceptic, the crowd roared with delight.

“Wow, I didn’t know he was that unpopular,” the Republican presidential nominee shouted over the cheers.

Trump, who once derided cryptocurrencies as a “scam,” is courting the industry and winning big cheques from donors hoping he will swiftly end Gensler’s crypto crackdown.

Under Gensler, a Democrat appointed by President Biden, the SEC has brought dozens of crypto enforcement actions, including against major exchanges Coinbase, Binance and Kraken, and levied hundreds of millions of dollars in fines.

A Trump victory could change that virtually overnight. He could appoint a crypto-friendly chair to advance the industry’s wishlist, which includes spiking guidance that it says has limited Americans’ crypto custody options; a safe harbour for new tokens; and pulling enforcement actions.

“The most important thing we want out of a new administration is the nomination of individuals to key positions ... that have an appreciation and an understanding of crypto,” said Kristin Smith, CEO of the Blockchain Association, an industry group, according to Reuters.

Gensler’s spokesperson declined to comment.

Citing a Supreme Court ruling, Gensler says most crypto tokens behave like securities and should be strictly regulated in the same way, a position lower courts have mostly backed.

Crypto firms argue tokens are commodities and want new laws clarifying their status, although that could take years if Congress remains divided.

While Gensler’s term ends in 2026, Trump could replace him with another commissioner as acting chair. The likely candidate is Hester Peirce, a crypto advocate and the longer-serving of the SEC’s two Republican commissioners.

The industry is pushing crypto enthusiasts Brian Brooks and Chris Giancarlo, who served in Trump’s first administration, for the permanent job, executives said.

An acting chair could immediately rescind 2022 SEC guidance requiring public companies to account for crypto assets held on behalf of others as liabilities due to their riskiness. Banks struggle with this policy because strict capital rules require them to hold cash against liabilities.

Cryptocurrencies, with a market capitalization of around $2.5 trillion according to CoinGecko, would become more popular if consumers could store them with trusted lenders, executives say, according to a Reuters report.

“I believe that’ll be rescinded Day One of the Trump administration,” said Cody Carbone, chief policy officer at the Chamber of Digital Commerce, a digital asset group.

The industry is also pushing for a safe harbour from SEC registration rules for issuing and trading crypto tokens, an idea Peirce floated in 2020.

“We need to look for a workable way to ensure both that token offerings can occur outside of the legal shadows and that token purchasers have access to the information they need,” Peirce told Reuters by email.

Smith said such a framework would be “incredibly positive,” the Reuters report adds.

Giancarlo, who earned the nickname “crypto Dad” when he was Commodity Futures Trading Commission chair, declined to comment on whether he would be interested in becoming SEC chair under a second Trump administration.

Until Congress acts, regulators have discretion to craft an interim regulatory regime that better serves the public and investors, he said. He also backed a crypto safe harbour.

Brian Hughes, senior adviser to Trump’s campaign, said in a statement the former president is prepared to remove “obstacles and unnecessary burdens” for crypto.

A new chair’s power would depend, though, on the political weighting of the five-member commission which votes on rules, enforcement and other major issues. It is dominated 3-2 by Gensler and two other Democrats also critical of crypto.

While the president can replace an SEC chair with another commissioner, Gensler could still see out his term as commissioner. Even if he left, the four remaining members would be evenly divided initially, constraining a new chair.