It’s official: Gary Gensler is the new chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), following a 53-45 vote by the U.S. Senate on Wednesday.
Gensler, who was nominated by President Joe Biden in January, previously managed the Federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and oversaw the implementation of new derivatives regulations in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. he enough opportunity to form regulations that address the cryptocurrency industry – or to determine how existing regulations should apply.
“Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have given new thinking to payments and financial inclusion, but it has also raised new investor protection issues that we still need to address,” Gensler said during a confirmation hearing held by the Senate Banking Committee last month. “If confirmed by the SEC, I will work with fellow commissioners to promote the new innovation, but also to protect the core of investors.”
Gensler will hold office while his agency struggles with a number of high-profile actions in the cryptocurrency space, including the ongoing lawsuit against Ripple, which accused the SEC of violating federal security laws, and nine applications for exchange-traded funds (ETFs). , which the industry participants have been clinching for years.
He has already considered some of these issues as a private citizen lecturing at MIT. In 2018, he calls XRP a ‘security that does not comply,’ and says other initial currency offerings could violate U.S. security laws.
The SEC will also look at how Coinbase will be announced on Wednesday, after the agency considers its Form S-1 effective (essentially a tacit approval).
Gensler will also have to address a number of issues surrounding the existing stock market, including the Gamestop volatility of earlier this year.
Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), the committee’s chairman, endorsed Gensler’s nomination before Wednesday’s vote, calling him an ‘experienced civil servant with a strong record of holding Wall Street accountable.’
‘[Gensler] “will lead the SEC into a time when it has become increasingly clear to most people that the stock market is detached from the reality of working families,” he said during the floor debate on Tuesday.