The ghosts of crypto regulation past and present collided this week. Former SEC chair Gary Gensler, who left the agency in January when Donald Trump took office, resurfaced to defend his hard-line stance on digital assets — just as the Trump-era SEC leadership dismantles much of his legacy.
In a rare CNBC appearance, Gensler made it clear he has zero regrets about his four years at the helm. “We were consistently trying to ensure investor protection,” he said, insisting that crypto remained a “highly speculative, very risky asset” riddled with fraudsters. He pointed to Sam Bankman-Fried as Exhibit A, though the FTX founder hardly stood alone.
Gensler left the SEC on Jan. 20, the same day Trump was sworn in. During the 2024 campaign, Trump openly promised to fire him “on day one” — and delivered. Since then, Gensler has retreated to the relative calm of academia at MIT Sloan, while watching his enforcement-heavy crypto agenda get dismantled in real time.
Atkins’ SEC: A Full Reversal
Paul Atkins, now confirmed as SEC chair, has wasted no time pivoting from Gensler’s regulation-by-lawsuit playbook. Many of the high-profile cases against crypto firms have already been dropped under acting chair Mark Uyeda, and Atkins has leaned into a friendlier approach. The new SEC line: “very few tokens are securities.” That’s a radical reframe of Gensler’s stance, which categorized most tokens as securities by default.
Even ETF approvals — once a years-long fight under Gensler — are now being rubber-stamped with streamlined processes. For investors, the message is clear: the SEC is open for crypto business.
Trump’s SEC Gambit: Kill Quarterly Reporting
The shifts don’t stop with crypto. Trump has also proposed scrapping quarterly earnings reports for U.S. companies, moving to a twice-a-year schedule. For decades, quarterly disclosures have been a pillar of U.S. capital markets, offering investors a regular pulse check. Trump and his allies frame the change as “reducing burdens” on public companies.
Atkins backed the idea, saying the SEC will “consider and move forward” with a rule change, letting “the market decide what the proper cadence is.”
Gensler isn’t convinced. “Transparency helps markets,” he warned, arguing that halving disclosures would only add volatility. For someone who spent four years trying to impose structure on crypto chaos, the thought of less transparency across markets clearly rankles.
A Tale of Two SECs
The contrast could not be starker. Gensler’s SEC was defined by aggressive enforcement, headline-grabbing lawsuits, and a near-paranoid view of digital assets. The Trump-Atkins SEC is dismantling that architecture, fast-tracking ETFs, softening its stance on tokens, and even questioning bedrock reporting rules.
Investors now face a regulatory landscape in whiplash. For crypto, it’s a green light moment. For traditional markets, the dismantling of quarterly reports could introduce new risks. And for Gensler? His legacy is quickly becoming a cautionary tale: when politics shift, even the most aggressive regulator can watch their empire vanish overnight.
