close
close

first Drop

Com TW NOw News 2024

    • SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, who led the crackdown on crypto, is stepping down
    news

    SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, who led the crackdown on crypto, is stepping down

    Vaseline Posted on

    Michelle Chapman
    | Associated press

    Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler, who has been aggressive in his oversight of cryptocurrencies, will leave his position on January 20.

    Gensler pushed for changes that he said protected investors, but the industry and many Republicans balked at what they saw as overreach.

    President-elect Donald Trump had promised during his campaign that he would impeach Gensler. But Gensler announced Thursday that he would leave his position on the day Trump is inaugurated.

    Bitcoin has risen 40% since Trump’s victory. It reached new highs, approaching $100,000 on Thursday. Bitcoin moved significantly higher after his resignation was announced.

    Perhaps most famously, Gensler gave a speech during the first year of his presidency in 2021 in which he described the world of crypto as “the Wild West.”

    “This asset class is rife with fraud, scams and abuse in certain applications,” he said in a speech at the Aspen Security Forum. “There is a lot of hype and spin about how crypto assets work. In many cases, investors are not able to obtain rigorous, balanced and complete information.”

    Under Gensler, the SEC has taken action against crypto industry players for fraud, wash trading and other violations. For example, the commission last month filed fraud charges against three companies posing as market makers, along with nine individuals for attempting to manipulate various crypto markets.

    The SEC under Gensler also helped make bitcoin accessible to more investors. In January 2024, the SEC approved exchange-traded funds that track the spot price of bitcoin. Such ETFs would allow investors to more easily access bitcoin without the massive overlays required for investments.

    “The staff and the Commission are very mission-driven, focused on protecting investors, facilitating capital formation and ensuring markets work for both investors and issuers,” Gensler said in prepared remarks Thursday. “The staff consists of real civil servants. It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve with them on behalf of everyday Americans and ensure our capital markets remain the best in the world.”

    Gensler previously served as chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and led the Obama administration’s $400 trillion swap market overhaul. He also served as senior advisor to the late U.S. Senator Paul Sarbanes, D-Md., in the writing of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (2002) and served as Undersecretary of the Treasury Department for Domestic Finance and Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Department from 1997-2001.

    AP Business Writer Stan Choe in New York contributed to this report.

    Vaseline
    View all posts