• Gary Gensler’s job as SEC Chairman may be on the line as a lawmaker is determined to boot him out.
• Gensler’s SEC has initiated a series of crackdowns on major crypto players this year.

There have been a lot of complaints about how Gary Gensler, the Chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is handling the affairs of the nation’s capital market, a situation that is stirring a revolt. In one of the latest updates, a US lawmaker, Warren Davidson has declared his intentions to introduce legislation that will remove Gensler from office.

The lawmaker responded to a Tweet from Coinbase Global Inc’s Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal who commented on a note from SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce on how the current trend in the commission is more anti-innovation than envisaged. The US Representative said thereafter that;

To correct a long series of abuses, I am introducing legislation that removes the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission and replaces the role with an Executive Director that reports to the Board (where authority resides). Former Chairs of the SEC are ineligible.

While it remains unknown whether or not the planned legislation will get supporters, the move appears to have a unique significance for members of the digital currency ecosystem. 

While the most significant crackdowns in the industry, including the Ripple Labs Inc case with the regulator were initiated during the Jay Clayton Administration, Gary Gensler is known to have perpetrated the lawsuit and steered it in a way that makes the general public suspicious of a bad motive.

This Gary Gensler administration has also followed the path of its predecessors in turning down a full-fledged Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) product while the crackdown on current major players in the space have intensified following the collapse of the FTX Derivatives Exchange in November last year.

Implicating documents on the SEC Chairman

Despite the crackdown on Kraken’s staking product which was accompanied by a $30 million settlement, the crypto industry’s fuss against Gary Gensler appears to be more ingrained than anticipated.

According to an exposition by CryptoLaw, the advocacy law firm for the digital currency ecosystem started by John Deaton has revealed a potential motive for most of Gensler’s approach to regulation.

In recently released documents, it was revealed that the regulator’s visitor directory has had at least 5 meetings with executives from the mega financial services firm, the Vanguard Group. As detailed, the Vanguard Group manages the $100 million personal fortune of the SEC Chair and while this is not necessarily a red flag, not meeting with crypto executives as well has been talked down by keen observers.

The released documents dubbed “Gensler Files” might further lend a case to the plot to remove the top market regulatory official from office.