- Founder of Fisher Investments, Ken Fisher, has said the incoming Trump administration won’t have much impact on crypto until the terms of the current SEC and CFTC boards expire in 19 months.
- Meanwhile, John Reed Stark, former head of the SEC’s Internet Enforcement Office, has called on the SEC to stop enforcement actions against cryptocurrencies in the wake of Trump’s resounding election win.
With Trump‘s election for a second term as president, everything will be plain sailing for crypto hodlers right? Green candles until the end of time, no more Gary, more Lambos than you can shake a stick at! But it appears some people disagree with this view.
Despite Trump insisting that he’ll fire Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman, Gary Gensler, on day one of his presidency — he can’t actually do that (Trump speaking nonsense? Surely not). The SEC board is appointed to five year terms and outside of a limited number of extreme circumstances, they can’t be replaced during their term.
Ken Fisher, the founder of Fisher Investments, told Sky News that Trump can’t fire either of the chairs of the two major regulatory bodies that oversee crypto, the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). He said the new US president would have to wait almost two years for their terms to finish. Until then, Fisher argues, not much will happen with regard to changes to crypto policy.
The fact is the Trump administration will have more positive views about crypto, but they won’t be able to do much about it and so it’ll be moved into the back burner.
Ken Fisher, Founder and Executive Chairman of Fisher InvestmentsRelated: Reports: Hester Peirce Could Succeed Gary Gensler at Helm of SEC
Could Gary Be Demoted Instead? Will Trump Flip?
Timothy Massad, former chairman of the US CFTC and now a research fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, said in an interview with Cointelegraph that while Trump likely couldn’t fire the leadership of the SEC or CFTC, he could appoint a different Chairman by promoting an existing board member.
According to Massad there are a few pro-crypto board members at the SEC, such as Hester Pierce or Mark Uyeda, either of which would likely take a much more pro-crypto position than Gary Gensler has.
Massad also worries that while a Trump administration may make changes to crypto policy, will they be changes that actually foster innovation and create value or will they simply make it easier for founders to fleece investors? It is a bit of a concern given Trump’s well documented fondness for scams (shout out to all the Trump University alums!)
Some market watchers have gone even further and suggested Trump could even totally change his mind on crypto — given his history as a Bitcoin hater and his somewhat erratic nature, this is always a possibility.
SEC Should Stop Enforcement Against Crypto, Says Stark
Posting on X / Twitter Former Chief of the SEC Office of Internet Enforcement, John Reed Stark, said the SEC should accept the will of the American people as voiced in the election and stop all enforcement against cryptocurrencies:
Stark is generally seen as something of a crypto sceptic, so his coming out against the SEC’s regulation through enforcement approach is noteworthy.
Related: Breaking: US Spot Bitcoin ETFs See Record-Shattering US$1.37 Billion in Daily Inflows
If the regulators do take this approach it could be a very good few years for crypto. Speaking to Cointelegraph Chiente Hsu, co-founder of Bitcoin bridge ALEXGO, said that he predicts this softer regulatory approach will be adopted and that it will spur growth across the entire crypto industry:
The next 4 to 6 years could be highly favorable for the digital assets sector. We can anticipate growth in crypto-focused ETFs (exchange-traded funds) and derivatives, along with a likely decrease in regulatory lawsuits targeting the crypto industry.
Chiente Hsu, co-founder of ALEXGO
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