Caroline Crenshaw’s SEC Renomination Faces Crypto Industry Backlash as Senate Vote Looms

• A Senate Committee is set to vote on the renomination of Caroline Crenshaw for U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissioner.
• Crypto executives and advocacy groups have been strongly opposing Crenshaw’s renomination to the agency.
• If appointed as Commissioner, Crenshaw will be the only Democrat in Trump’s pro-crypto agency.

The crypto industry is aggressively lobbying against the renomination of U.S Securities and Exchange Commissioner (SEC) Caroline Crenshaw.

Blockchain advocacy groups and leading crypto executives have been fiercely opposing Crenshaw, who has been slammed as “even more rogue than [Gary] Gensler” in some instances.

Senate Vote Looms For Crenshaw

The Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee is set to decide on the reappointment of Crenshaw later today.

If appointed as an SEC Commissioner, Crenshaw will be the only Democrat in President-elect Donald Trump’s newly shuffled, pro-crypto agency.

Trump first appointed Crenshaw in 2020 before President Biden reappointed her to serve the agency again.

Some Republicans have accused Democrats of rushing the Senate hearing to renominate Crenshaw before they lose the majority in January 2025.

Crypto Lobbies Against Crenshaw

The crypto industry has strongly opposed Crenshaw’s reinstatement, claiming that she holds worryingly anti-crypto views.

Several leading crypto executives have heavily criticized the Commissioner for her past actions in the SEC.

Many have pointed to her previous remarks labeling crypto markets as a “petri dish” of fraud and her strong opposition to Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Brian Armstrong, CEO and co-founder of Coinbase, took to X to call Crenshaw a “failure as an SEC Commissioner and should be voted out.”

Ripple Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty claimed that , in some ways, Crenshaw was even more rogue than Gensler.

“At least Gensler backed down after a Court said blocking BTC spot ETFs was ‘arbitrary and capricious.'” he wrote on X.

“Crenshaw, however, continued to vote “no,” insisting that the Court got it wrong in her dissent. Unelected bureaucrats are not above the law,” Alderoty added.

The Blockchain Association, an advocacy group for Decentralized Finance (DeFi) technology, wrote an open letter to the SEC on Dec. 9 to oppose Crenshaw’s revote.

“Congress has a clear mandate from the American people to establish sound and reasonable cryptocurrency-related policies,” the letter read.

“Unfortunately, Commissioner Crenshaw’s tenure at the SEC has been marked by actions that seem to be at odds with this charge.”

The letter also noted Crenshaw’s aggressive stance against Bitcoin ETFs and urged the agency to elect someone who wants “to learn about these technologies and engage in constructive dialogue.”

Trump’s New SEC Agency

Last week, President-elect Donald Trump announced that pro-crypto advocate Paul Atkins will replace Gary Gensler as the head of the SEC.

The decision highlighted Trump’s desire to move away from anti-crypto regulation in the agency, with the president-elect calling Atkins a “proven leader for common-sense regulations.”

Since leaving the SEC as a Commissioner in 2008, Atkins has echoed sentiments similar to Trump on how the agency should be run, believing that it was imposing too much regulation on the crypto market.

If the vote goes her way, the differing views of Atkins and Crenshaw will likely result in butting heads. The vote for Crenshaw’s renomination is  scheduled to take place at 9:45 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, Dec. 11.