For months, Donald Trump has promised that if re-elected, he would fire U.S. Securities and Exchange Commision (SEC’s) current chair, Gary Gensler, and end the agency’s crypto-hostile approach. Now, a clearer picture is emerging of who the former president might tap to run America’s top Wall Street watchdog.
Robinhood Chief Legal Officer Dan Gallagher has emerged as a top choice to run the SEC should Trump win in November, Politico reported on Monday, citing conversations with a dozen unnamed lobbyists, securities lawyers, and former regulators.
Gallagher is not only helping lead Robinhood’s push into crypto, but he also previously served as a Republican commissioner to the SEC during the Obama administration. Prior to that, the veteran lawyer worked as counsel to multiple Republican appointees to the SEC during George W. Bush’s presidency.
What’s Driving Gary Gensler’s Crypto Agenda? ‘He’s Got Some of That Elizabeth Warren in Him’, Says Mark Cuban
Mark Cuban has long been a vocal critic of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler, over the regulator's hostile approach to regulating the crypto industry. But only last week did the two men actually meet face to face in a CNBC green room—an experience that Cuban says was illuminating. “I told [Gary] this: You’re screwing the whole thing up, you’re pushing industries overseas,” Cuban said in an interview with Farokh Sarmad of Rug Radio, a sister company of Decrypt. “An...
In a statement shared with Decrypt, Gallagher implied that he would be open to accepting the SEC chair position should Trump offer it to him.
“It is an honor to have my name included in any discussion of who may be the next SEC Chairman,” he said. “I care deeply about the agency, and my hope for any new SEC Chairman would be that they foster access to the markets, and ensure the U.S. remains at the forefront of financial innovation.”
Gallagher is intimately familiar with the SEC’s skeptical approach to the crypto industry. In May, Robinhood disclosed that it had received a Wells Notice from the regulator, signaling that it planned to sue the popular stock trading app for offering U.S. customers the ability to buy and sell about 15 different cryptocurrencies.
Let Americans Have Their Crypto Airdrops, Lawmakers Tell Gary Gensler
In a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler, Representative Tom Emmer (R-MN)—the House Majority Whip—expressed concerns about how the regulator views crypto airdrops under the lens of securities law. In the letter, co-signed by Chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services Patrick McHenry (R-NC), Emmer pointed to a lack of regulatory framework in the United States regarding digital assets as the reason why Americans are blocked from claiming airdro...
At the time, Gallagher pledged to fight any lawsuit the SEC might bring against Robinhood, and insisted that “the assets listed on our platform are not securities.”
To date, the SEC has not yet filed a lawsuit against Robinhood over its crypto business. But the agency has filed similar suits against crypto exchanges like Coinbase, Binance, and Kraken.
Other names reported by Politico as top Trump picks for SEC chair include noted crypto advocate and Trump’s former Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chair, Chris Giancarlo, and Hester Peirce, a noted critic of Gensler’s crypto approach, who is currently one of two Republican appointees to the SEC.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
