Donald Trump is on track to win the presidency, and cryptocurrency users can't help but debate on the future of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), especially its current Chair, Gary Gensler.
The Republican presidential candidate promised Bitcoiners during the Bitcoin 2024 earlier this year that he will "fire" Gensler on his first day as the 47th President of the United States. What do crypto users think will happen to the industry's "enemy"?
Will Trump Fire Gensler?
As the popular vote on the U.S. presidential elections come through – largely in favor of Trump – Justin Sun, the founder of the TRON blockchain, raised the question on the SEC chief's fate: "So, what's going to happen to Gensler?" he wrote on X.
Borovik, a prominent figure in the crypto space, said, "Trump is going to fire him." While it is unclear whether Trump can actually "fire" Gensler since the Constitution's Article II (on executive power) doesn't expressly grant such authority to the President, Gensler will only have around a year and five months left in his tenure once a new president is inaugurated.
Pointsville founder Gabor Gurbacs replied to Sun's question with an edited photo of Gensler with the LinkedIn #OpenToWork profile picture, suggesting that Gensler may lose his job once official tallies are in to hand Trump the victory.
One user said Gensler may become a "cleaner at the D.O.G.E Department." The said agency, the Department of Government Efficiency, has yet to be officially established. Trump promised tech titan Elon Musk that he will appoint the Tesla CEO to the said government spending auditing commission if he wins.
Another user said he thinks Gensler will "quit before he's fired." In July, 10X Research founder Markus Thielen predicted that the SEC top leader may step down prematurely, sometime around January or February 2025, at around the same time outgoing President Joe Biden finishes his term. Biden appointed Gensler into the SEC chairmanship in 2021.
At least one user said that if Trump, assuming he is officially declared the presidential winner, is able to remove Gensler from position, "a more forward looking technologist" may assume the chairmanship.
Gensler's Rocky Relationship with Crypto
The clamor over Gensler's removal from the SEC leadership comes with much weight, given the SEC's crusade against crypto firms under Gensler.
Notably, multiple lawmakers, both Republican and Democrat, called out Gensler during a September hearing for allegedly transforming the Wall Street regulator into "a rouge agency." They called him the most "lawless" and "destructive" SEC chief. A crypto-leaning Democratic House representative also criticized him for his "open hostility towards digital assets."
Aside from a possibly pro-crypto president, Gensler will also live out the rest of his SEC tenure under an overwhelmingly pro-crypto Congress. Stand With Crypto's live data shows that as of 6:00 a.m. ET, there are 247 pro-crypto House of Representatives candidates over 113 "anti-crypto" runners. In the Senate, 15 elected officials are tagged pro-crypto, as opposed to 10 "anti-crypto" who've been elected.
It remains to be seen how the U.S. elections' outcomes will affect Gensler's position and whether he will complete his term, but for now, the crypto community is in favor of his exit.
