“证券交易委员会是一个了不起的机构。这里的员工和委员会都无比专注于他们肩负的使命，致力于保护投资者，积极促进资本的有效形成，确保市场对投资者和发行方都公平。”Gary Gensler, the chairman of the usa Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), plans to step down on January 20, facing strong opposition from Wall Street and the cryptos industry regarding his ambitious agenda during his tenure. Afterward, the SEC will be led by either Mark Uyeda or Hester Peirce as acting chair, and the new SEC chair may adopt a more friendly regulatory approach towards cryptos.
On November 21, Eastern Time, Gary Gensler, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the usa, announced that he would resign on January 20 next year. His ambitious reform plans have previously encountered strong opposition from Wall Street and the cryptos industry.
In a statement on Thursday, Gensler stated:
The Securities and Exchange Commission is a remarkable institution. The employees and the commission here are wholeheartedly focused on their mission, dedicated to protecting investors, actively promoting the effective formation of capital, and ensuring that markets are fair to both investors and issuers.
Gensler's departure will leave the SEC under the leadership of an acting chairman, likely to be Mark Uyeda or Hester Peirce, both of whom are Republican commissioners.
In 2021, President Biden appointed Gensler, who calls himself a 'market expert.' After taking office, he initiated a radical reform initiative focusing on requiring companies to disclose climate risks, reforming stocks trading rules, and cracking down on violations in the cryptos sector. He took decisive action against companies that had not registered with the agency, such as Coinbase and large proprietary trading firm DRW Holdings.
However, the cryptos industry reacted strongly, believing that Gensler had not provided a truly suitable way for the emerging asset class of cryptos to develop reasonably within the existing regulatory framework, which was based on traditional financial structures established decades ago.
While some of Gensler's regulations faced significant resistance during implementation, it is undeniable that they have had a relatively lasting impact on the financial sector. For example, he successfully accelerated the settlement time for usa stocks trading and promoted new regulations for usa Treasury bonds trading, allowing hundreds of billions of dollars in Treasury transactions to be centrally cleared each day. This centralized and transparent management approach can make the market more stable and orderly.
In addition, Gensler required internal company personnel, such as executives or major shareholders, to adhere to stricter rules when selling stocks to prevent them from using insider information for unfair trading profits.
Analysis indicates that with Gensler's departure, the cryptos industry may experience significant changes in SEC policies. The next SEC chair may not regulate as strictly as Gensler, potentially relaxing enforcement against brokers, banks, and hedge funds using third-party messaging applications for communication, weakening SEC regulations on climate risk disclosure, and possibly adopting a more favorable regulatory stance toward cryptos.
