Anti-Crypto SEC Commissioner Crenshaw Likely Out After Reconfirmation Vote Axed

A vote to reconfirm SEC Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw was canceled Wednesday, likely ending her chance of securing another term at the United States’ main digital assets regulator—a major win for the crypto industry’s bid to expand its influence on Capitol Hill.

The U.S. Senate Banking Committee was due to vote last Wednesday on whether to extend Crenshaw’s tenure at the SEC, where the regulator has served since 2020. Initially rescheduled for this Wednesday, the vote is now listed as canceled on the Senate website.

The vote has now been nixed with no possibility of rescheduling, a Senate aide with knowledge of the matter told Decrypt. That means Crenshaw’s odds of securing another term at Wall Street’s top cop are near-zero. 

“It’s essentially dead,” crypto lobbyist and Digital Chamber President Cody Carbone told Decrypt of Crenshaw’s re-nomination.

In order to remain at the SEC, Crenshaw would have had to secure approval from the Senate Banking Committee before the end of the current congressional session. But the 2024 congressional calendar ends today, December 18.

After that date, Crenshaw could continue to gun for another term at the Commission—but she’d have to clinch approval from the newly Republican-controlled Congress that will come into session next year. That’s highly unlikely.

“Republicans won’t bring her nomination forward,” Carbone said. 

Crenshaw is one of the last-standing targets of pro-crypto lobbyists’ efforts to reshape the SEC. The regulatory agency is composed of a chairman and five commissioners, who are appointed by the U.S. President for five-year terms with approval from the Senate.

President Biden re-nominated Crenshaw to the Commission earlier this year, shortly after the regulator’s term ended in June. However, it’s looking more likely that the Commission will have a three-person Republican majority in the coming years.

SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, who led a crusade against crypto during the Biden administration, signaled last month he would resign from the agency in January. Democrat-backed SEC commissioner Jaime Lizárr has also bowed out of the Commission.

President-elect Donald Trump has nominated former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins to be the agency’s next chairman.

Digital asset proponents launched an aggressive campaign to unseat Crenshaw in the lead-up to the Senate Committee’s vote on the nomination.

Stand with Crypto, a non-profit crypto advocacy group backed by leading crypto exchange Coinbase, announced on Tuesday that its members flooded lawmakers’ inboxes with more than 100,000 letters opposing Crenshaw’s reappointment to the SEC. 

Meanwhile, two pro-crypto lobbying groups, the Blockchain Association and the DeFi Education Fund, implored lawmakers in a letter earlier this week to block Crenshaw’s nomination. At the same time, the crypto industry-backed Cedar Innovation Foundation rolled out an ad campaign calling Crenshaw “more anti-crypto” than the much-maligned Gensler.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong also jumped into the fray, calling upon lawmakers in an X post last week to obstruct the commissioner’s nomination.

Digital asset industry proponents helped secure self-proclaimed crypto champion Donald Trump return to the White House in last month’s election win, stoking hopes that digital asset-friendly regulations will take root in the U.S. Meanwhile, digital currency industry-backed super PAC Fairshake helped secure the election of the most crypto-friendly U.S. Congress to date.

Additional reporting by Sander Lutz

Edited by Andrew Hayward