President-elect Donald ***** has appointed Mark Uyeda, a Republican SEC commissioner, to temporarily take over the helm of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, replacing Gary Gensler who led the agency during the *****-Harris administration.
The appointment comes immediately after Gensler stepped down as Wall Street’s top cop on Jan. 20, as expected, alongside President Donald *****’s inauguration.
Mark Uyeda Takes Interim Leadership Of SEC
Gary Gensler is now gone, a moment the crypto industry has long been waiting for. Hours after he was sworn into office, ***** tapped Mark Uyeda to hold down the fort as acting SEC boss until a permanent chair is confirmed.
Back in December, ***** nominated former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins to run the SEC on a long-term basis. However, Atkins is yet to be confirmed by the Senate.
As an SEC commissioner, Uyeda has been a vocal critic of the agency’s “regulation through enforcement” approach under former chair Gensler. During an interview with Fox Business last October, he described the SEC’s treatment of digital assets as a “disaster” for the crypto industry. In December, Uyeda predicted eased cryptocurrency enforcement and greater clarity.
New Administration, New Crypto Approach?
Under Gensler’s regime, the SEC pursued several enforcement actions against high-profile crypto companies such as Ripple, Coinbase, Binance, and Kraken and also pushed a controversial crypto accounting policy.
It’s unclear what will happen to these pending cases under the new ***** government or interim chair Uyeda. As ZyCrypto reported previously, pro-crypto SEC commissioners plan to dismiss non-fraud enforcement cases.
Since being sworn in, ***** did not mention crypto on his first day as the 47th President of the United States. The omission of crypto-related actions disappointed fans who had anticipated ***** to create a presidential crypto council or announce plans for a national Bitcoin reserve. Nonetheless, the SEC is set to have a regulatory shift for crypto following Gensler’s exit.