SEC Chairman Gary Gensler Resigns, Leaving Legacy of Division and Crypto Feud

Since taking office in April 2021, Gensler has battled industry groups across Wall Street and pursued an aggressive rulemaking and enforcement campaign that often put him at odds with the companies his agency oversaw.

Gensler was appointed by President Joe Biden. It is customary for bureau chiefs to resign after the election of a president from the other party.

A former Goldman Sachs banker, Gensler reinvented himself as a progressive reformer after the 2008 financial crisis and helped pass the landmark Dodd-Frank legislation. As SEC chairman, Gensler sought out an unusual public role for an agency chief, often appearing on television and sparring with the crypto industry.

“The SEC is a remarkable agency,” he wrote on the X along with a press release. “It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve with them on behalf of ordinary Americans and ensure that our capital markets remain the best in the world.”

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Established in the early 1930s, the SEC is tasked with regulating securities markets, such as stocks and bonds, as well as protecting investors. It has typically been a highly technical agency that stays out of the limelight, instead working with investment firms and banks to prevent fraud and oversee paperwork like public tenders.

That changed under Gensler, who had established himself as a prominent figure in the Democratic Party through his previous roles as chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and finance director of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. He also worked to shed his reputation as a Goldman financier and won over progressives like Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren through her work on the Dodd-Frank Act.

As SEC chairman, Gensler helped enact progressive priorities, including controversial proposals requiring financial firms to provide climate disclosures — measures that were watered down after intense industry declines. The agency has also faced extensive lawsuits from various sectors, including the crypto industry, hedge funds and private equity firms, over its approach to rulemaking.

Gensler has also faced backlash from SEC commissioners including Hester Peirce and Mark Uyeda, who have criticized his lack of engagement with industry groups and crackdown on new sectors like decentralized finance and non-fungible tokens. Former employees complained about his aggressive approach, with many leaving for the private sector. Attrition increased in the first year after he took office, though it slowed the following year.

Gensler’s most visible work, however, has been his public feud with the crypto industry. While his predecessor, Chair Jay Clayton, started a trend of suing major blockchain firms with his lawsuit against Ripple, Gensler stepped up the campaign after FTX’s collapse in November 2022. The next year, Gensler’s SEC sued two of the largest crypto firms, Coinbase and Binance, while Gensler often alleged industry non-compliance and widespread fraud.

“You see company after company, entrepreneur after entrepreneur, misleading the public, going bankrupt,” he said Assets in an interview last November.

The agency’s approach is likely to change under Trump, who became an ardent advocate of the crypto industry during his 2024 campaign. Although Trump has yet to name his nominee for SEC chairman, rumored candidates include Robinhood’s general counsel Dan Gallagher and former SEC commissioner Paul Atkins. At an event Tuesday, current SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda, a Republican, dismissed speculation that he would be wiretapped.