- The SEC's Enforcement Director is leaving.
- The news comes after a slew of crypto legal defeats for the regulator.
- Crypto pundits are speculating on whether SEC Chair Gary Gensler could also leave the agency.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission said on Wednesday that Enforcement Director Gurbir S. Grewal will leave the agency on October 11.
Grewal, a 21-year agency vet, presided over 100 enforcement actions against crypto companies since 2021. He’s widely regarded as one of the key architects of the SEC’s anti-crypto “regulation by enforcement” strategy.
“It’s not normal for an SEC Enforcement Director to get disappeared like this — gone on nine days’ notice with no replacement lined up,” Jake Chervinsky, chief legal officer at Variant, a crypto venture capital firm, said on X.
Sanjay Wadhwa, the Enforcement Division’s deputy director, will serve as acting director. It’s not clear who the SEC intends to promote to the role permanently.
The news comes as Washington warms up to crypto ahead of the US election in November.
Chervinsky couldn’t resist taking a shot at the SEC for its widely criticised approach to crypto over the last few years.
“Perhaps the inevitable end to a campaign of unlawful harassment and misrepresentation resulting in many embarrassing defeats in court,” he said.
In 2023, a US court of appeals ruled that the SEC erred by denying Grayscale, the crypto fund issuer, permission to launch a spot Bitcoin ETF.
Then in August, the SEC was mostly unsuccessful in its long-standing claim that sales of crypto payments firm Ripple Labs’ XRP token had violated securities laws.
Is Gensler next?
With Grewal’s departure and political pressure mounting, crypto pundits are speculating on whether SEC Chair Gary Gensler could also leave the agency.
Crypto investor Adam Cochran said on X that the short notice period and absence of a replacement for Grewal indicates that senior SEC staff are jumping ship fast.
“The writing is clearly on the wall that Gensler is out next term in either administration,” he said.
Former President Donald Trump has said he would fire Gensler immediately, should he return to the White House.
Vice President Kamala Harris, has not commented on Gensler’s tenure. President Joe Biden appointed Gensler as SEC Chair in 2021.
Other Democratic supporters haven’t been so restrained on the need for Gensler to go.
“You leaving is worth a point in GDP growth,” Mark Cuban, the billionaire investor and Harris supporter, posted on X.
In a recent interview on Fox News, Cuban said he would be open to replacing Gensler and heading the SEC should Harris win in November.
Grewal isn’t the only SEC chief to leave the agency recently.
In August, David Hirsch, the head of the SEC’s cyber and crypto enforcement unit, left to join Washington, DC law firm McGuireWoods.
Tim Craig is DL News’ Edinburgh-based DeFi Correspondent. Reach out with tips at tim@dlnews.com.
