On December 11, the US Senate Banking Committee will decide whether to reappoint Democratic Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw. Crenshaw has always been a staunch critic of cryptocurrencies and the crypto community is not happy with the prospect of her re-election.
Crenshaw is ‘anti-crypto,’ says Coinbase COO
Crenshaw, who was sworn into her role in August 2020, was one of two SEC commissioners who opposed the approval of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in January. In her letter disagreeing with the SEC’s decision, which Crenshaw called “flawed and ahistorical,” she wrote:
“I fear that we are preparing today for tomorrow’s failure, and that it will be the investors we must protect who will ultimately pay the price.”
SEC Commissioner Jaime Lizárraga, the only other SEC commissioner to vote against Bitcoin ETFs, did not add his name to her letter.
According to James Seyffart, a Bloomberg ETF analyst, Crenshaw was even “more fiercely anti-crypto” than SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, who himself was called “evil.” In fact, she was more than “just an ally of Gensler,” Seyffart wrote in an X post earlier this week.
In a December 7 post, Coinbase President and COO Emilie Choi wrote:
“Caroline Crenshaw is anti-crypto. She was even embarrassingly against Bitcoin ETFs. The SEC needs to change.”
Given Crenshaw’s widely known anti-crypto opinions, the community is frustrated about the upcoming vote on Wednesday. Alexander Grieve, vice president of government affairs at crypto investment firm Paradigm, called it “one last “gift” for crypto” that Democratic Senate President Sherrod Brown is “trying to ram through” before giving up his seat.
If the Senate vote passes, Crenshaw will retain her position in the SEC until 2029. However, if she is not confirmed by the Senate, President-elect Donald Trump will be free to nominate someone as a replacement.
Austin Campbell, CEO of digital payments company WSPN, wrote in an X-post:
“I will remind all Democrats that Caroline Crenshaw voted that the SEC should disobey a federal judge, break the law and instead reject BTC ETFs after being ordered by a court to approve them.”
Trump’s choice for SEC chairman has received approval from the crypto community
Earlier this week, Trump named Paul Atkins, a former SEC commissioner with a reputation for being pro-crypto, as the next SEC chief. The crypto industry welcomed the news with open arms.
Atkins, who served as Republican SEC commissioner from 2002 to 2008, is expected to take a much milder approach to regulating crypto than Gensler. Atkins is known for his advocacy of free market principles and investor protection and his focus on clarifying complex financial markets.
Atkins nomination. is “desperately needed and cannot come a day too soon,” Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal said in an X-post.