In July, at a bitcoin conference in Nashville, Tennessee, Trump promised to fire Gensler if he was re-elected, prompting perhaps the most raucous applause of the night. “I will appoint an SEC chairman who will build the future, not block it,” Trump said.
Last week, Gensler announced that he would resign from his office on January 20, the day of Trump’s inauguration. Representatives of the industry in which Gensler has been so maligned are now helping to choose his successor, sources tell WIRED.
The promise of an SEC review was one of many Trump made to the cryptocurrency industry during the election campaign. At the Nashville conference, he pledged to cement the United States as the leading bitcoin mining power, create a national “bitcoin reserve,” and establish a framework for stablecoin businesses, singing the cryptocurrency anthem.
In June, Trump had received executives from the crypto mining industry at Mar-a-Lago, their Florida resort. “We had a very long and deep conversation with him and he was very interested. He was very engaged and asked great questions,” says Brian Morgenstern, head of public policy at bitcoin mining company Riot Platforms and a former official in the first Trump administration, who was present.
Trump has even started dabbling in cryptocurrencies. Over the summer, his campaign began accepting crypto donations and his children launched their own crypto platform, World Liberty Financial, which he helped promote. Last Thursday, the New York Times reported that Trump’s social media company, Truth Social, filed a trademark application for what was described as a crypto payment service called TruthFi.
Allied figures from the crypto industry have already been named to Trump’s cabinet. His pick for Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, runs the financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, which manages assets for Tether, operator of the world’s largest stablecoin. Likewise, Vice President-elect JD Vance, Secretary-designate of the Department of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Vivek Ramaswamy, co-director of the new Department of Government Efficiency, have expressed opinions in favor of cryptocurrencies.
“Based on what I have heard in private conversations, my perspective has been that the incoming administration is taking its pro-bitcoin and crypto campaign promises very seriously and intends to make a robust evaluation of options to optimize (appointments for regulatory positions) as best they can,” says Christopher Calicott, managing director at bitcoin-focused venture capital firm Trammell Venture Partners.
The price of bitcoin has rose to record heightsjust shy of $100,000 per coin since Trump won re-election earlier this month.
“The entire industry will have much brighter prospects on several different fronts,” says Morgenstern. “We have no reason to doubt President Trump.”