One year has passed since Gary Gensler stepped down as chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) during President Donald Trump”s inauguration. His tenure faced substantial criticism from the cryptocurrency sector, particularly regarding his stringent regulatory stance on digital assets. Gensler”s approach likely influenced companies such as Ripple Labs to invest in political action committees (PACs) and support candidates in the upcoming 2024 elections who advocate for the crypto industry.
Following Gensler”s exit, Trump appointed SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda as the acting chair, initiating a dramatic shift in the SEC”s posture towards digital assets. Under Uyeda”s leadership, the agency has abandoned numerous long-running investigations and restructured its leadership to consist predominantly of Republican members.
In February 2025, shortly after Uyeda took the helm, the SEC announced the dismissal of a civil enforcement action against Coinbase, originally filed in 2023. This marked the beginning of a series of similar decisions as the SEC ceased investigations into other prominent crypto firms, including Robinhood Crypto and Uniswap Labs. A pivotal moment occurred in March when Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse indicated that the SEC would retract its appeal concerning a 2020 enforcement action against Ripple.
As the months progressed, more cases were dismissed under Uyeda and following the confirmation of Paul Atkins as chair in April. Lawmakers began to scrutinize whether these dismissals were influenced by Trump”s connections to the cryptocurrency industry. The Trump family”s involvement with companies like World Liberty Financial, which introduced its own stablecoin, raised eyebrows, as did Trump”s personal memecoin, Official Trump (TRUMP), and his sons” initiative, American Bitcoin, a crypto mining operation.
By June 2025, estimates suggested that the Trump family might have benefited by over $1 billion from their ventures in the crypto space.
In an effort to gather insights, the SEC held a series of roundtable discussions in 2025, engaging industry leaders, legal experts, and policymakers. These talks focused on key issues such as financial privacy, digital asset custody, tokenization, and decentralized finance. However, the relevance of the discussions may be overshadowed by ongoing efforts in Congress to pass the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, which aims to provide a clear regulatory framework for the cryptocurrency sector. Although the House of Representatives approved the bill in July, its progress has stalled in the Senate, particularly after Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong retracted his support.
With Gensler and former Commissioner Jaime Lizarraaga among the first to exit the SEC in January 2025, the agency saw a significant reduction in Democratic representation. Caroline Crenshaw remained the sole Democratic commissioner but departed in January 2026, having served beyond her term. As of the latest updates, Trump has not indicated any plans to nominate additional commissioners to restore the agency”s bipartisan balance. Gensler has since returned to the MIT Sloan School of Management, where he continues to discuss cryptocurrencies, labeling assets like Bitcoin (BTC) as “speculative.”
