‘Crypto Dad’ squashes rumors that he could replace Gensler as SEC Chair

Chris Giancarlo, the former Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair, has squashed rumors that he’s in the mix to take over Gary Gensler as head of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“I’ve made clear that I’ve already cleaned up earlier Gary Gensler mess [at the CFTC] and don’t want to have [to] do it again,” Giancarlo, widely known as “Crypto Dad,” said in a Nov. 14 X post. 

Giancarlo was a CFTC commissioner between June 2014 and April 2019, joining a few months after Gensler left his over four-and-a-half-year tenure as chair of the agency in January 2014. Giancarlo was later appointed as the CFTC’s Acting Chair from January to August 2017.

“Rumors that I’m interested in some crypto role [at the] US Treasury are also wrong,“ he added.

Giancarlo got the “Crypto Dad” moniker for his advocacy of blockchain technology. He also co-founded the Digital Dollar Project, which aims to “advance exploration” of a United States Central Bank Digital Currency.

He was also appointed as a board member at crypto lending firm BlockFi in April 2020 — about 30 months before it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November 2022.

Speculation over who will replace Gensler has heightened after Donald Trump’s election win — who said he’d fire Gensler on “day one” as one of his promises to the crypto industry.

It is customary for SEC Chairs to voluntarily stand down amid a change in administration, and while Gensler hasn’t explicitly said he will, the SEC boss has hinted he’s on the way out.

Trump’s transition team is reportedly considering a list of candidates to helm the SEC, and former SEC commissioner and Robinhood Markets legal boss Dan Gallagher is rumored to be at the top of the list.

Related: How a new SEC chair can boost Ether price and ETF inflows

Mark Uyeda, a current SEC commissioner, has also been tipped as a strong candidate to replace Gensler.

Uyeda has criticized the SEC’s approach to regulating crypto and called Gensler’s policies a “disaster for the whole industry” in October.

Also on the shortlist for SEC Chair is Paul Atkins, a former SEC commissioner who was on Trump’s 2016 transition team, and Robert Stebbins, a partner at law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher who was the SEC’s general counsel during Trump’s first term as president.

Some pundits suggest legal hurdles could prevent a quick Gensler ouster, despite Trump’s promise. The former president is slated to again be inaugurated on Jan. 20.

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