CryptoLink - October 2024 Updates

The incoming Trump administration is widely anticipated to take a new legislative, regulatory and policy approach to cryptocurrency and other digital assets in the U.S. President-elect Trump and Vice President-elect Vance have positioned themselves as openly pro-crypto, promising on the campaign trail to create a strategic national Bitcoin stockpile, establish a Bitcoin presidential advisory council and nominate a new Chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the regulator that most prominently at the forefront of enforcement efforts in the crypto space. The SEC recently announced that current Chair Gensler will be stepping down on January 20, 2025, the day of President-elect Trump’s inauguration, a departure that follows the exit of Enforcement Division director Gurbir Grewal from the SEC in October 2024. This allows President-elect Trump the opportunity to appoint a more crypto-friendly SEC Chair, foreshadowing what could be significant changes to the SEC’s enforcement-heavy regulatory approach. Trump’s reelection will also likely lead to the appointment of a new Chair of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). With new leaders at the helm of the SEC and the CFTC, the regulatory enforcement environment towards crypto in the U.S. could change considerably.