The chairman of the US Financial Markets Regulatory Authority (SEC), Gary Gensler, will leave his post early on January 20, the day of the inauguration of Donald Trump, who had said he wanted to remove him. The news, announced in a press release on Thursday, November 21, boosted the price of bitcoin, with Gensler considered in the industry as the sworn enemy of cryptocurrencies. In the minutes following this announcement, the queen digital currency set a new all-time high, with $98,473.64 per unit.
During his campaign, Donald Trump announced his intention to replace Gary Gensler as soon as he came to power. In the absence of a clear legislative framework, this former banker opted for a repressive approach towards digital currencies, which he sought to regulate like traditional financial securities. Based on this controversial legal basis, the SEC sued three of the largest exchanges, Binance, Coinbase and Kraken, as well as a number of smaller startups.
However, the regulatory authority recorded several legal setbacks, which led it to authorize the marketing, at the beginning of the year, of new investment products, called ETFs (exchange traded funds), which allow you to benefit from the fluctuations of bitcoin without purchasing it directly. .
Until now Gary Gensler had not said that he was considering a possible early exit. Donald Trump’s desire to get rid of it before the end of his term had sparked a debate among lawyers and academics due to the lack of established jurisprudence. It is generally accepted that the US president-elect could have appointed a new SEC chairman, but could not have forced Gary Gensler to leave the regulator’s board, of which he is one of the five members.
Appointed by President Joe Biden, the sixty-year-old was not theoretically expected to complete his five-year term on the SEC board until April 2026. Under his administration, “the SEC fulfilled its mission and applied the law without misgivings and without favoritism”commented Gary Gensler, quoted in the press release.
