Per Ripple General Counsel Stuart Alderoty, the U.S. SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) Chairperson “Gary Gensler is a political liability” of the Biden administration. Alderoty believes Gensler “serves as a political liability for the Joe Biden administration.”
Referring to the recent enforcement actions against cryptocurrency entities (such as Kraken, Paxos), Alderoty states the SEC has received a stark criticism from the Cryptoverse. Per Alderoty, close to 40 million American citizens, mostly in the voting age of 18 to 34, are cryptocurrency owners.
Alderoty took to twitter to voice his SEC Chair stance:
Over 40 million Americans own crypto. Most of those are between the ages of 18-34 and are demographically and racially diverse. That’s a lot of votes. Gary Gensler is a political liability.
— Stuart Alderoty (@s_alderoty) February 13, 2023
The Cryptoverse statistics do tend to accurately support Alderoty’s claims. A recent study indicates close to 46 million Americans (22% of the adult population) own a part of Bitcoin. Per an NBC poll from March 2022, one in five Americans (mostly men in the 18 to 49 age group) is involved in cryptocurrencies in either of the forms.
Citing these stats, Alderoty formed his belief that the president Joe Biden’s 2021 SEC Chair appointee Gary Gensler is a political liability. Per Alderoty, this essentially translates to the SEC Chair posing no less than a political risk for the Biden Administration.
Alderoty believes in the future, millions of disappointed cryptocurrency lovers would not support an anti-cryptocurrency market leader or an administration.
A number of pro-cryptocurrency individuals in fact have already asked Gensler to resign lately. They allege that under Gensler’s SEC leadership, the regulatory agency’s enforcement actions do too little to safeguard consumers. In an October 2022 letter, U.S. Democrat Senator John Hickenlooper has also reportedly expressed a concern over Gensler’s cryptocurrency regulations approach.
Alderoty’s stance for Gensler emanates from the Kraken exchange recently agreeing to the SEC asking it to stop its staking service. The SEC directed the Kraken exchange to pay $30 million to settle the leveled charges. While Gensler did try to justify the Kraken charges, the Cryptoverse is not impressed.
The U.S. SEC, after framing charges against Kraken, reportedly indicated it would sue the Paxos Trust for violating the investor protection guidelines. The SEC has also recently sent a Wells notice to the Paxos Trust.
The NYDFS (The New York State Department of Financial Services) has also reportedly asked the Paxos Trust to stop minting and issuing the BUSD stablecoin. Paxos would reportedly cease issuing new BUSD tokens w.e.f. February 21 after being served an NYDFS directive.
