Gary Gensler’s tenure as the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair has apparently been anything but smooth.
With less than two weeks before he steps down, the man who’s been the face of the Biden administration’s anti-crypto agenda has opened up about the toll it’s taken on him, and let’s just say, it hasn’t been a walk in the park for Gary.
He admitted that the barrage of crypto-related cases during his time at the SEC left him “traumatized.” Oh, and about Elon Musk’s D.O.G.E? He thinks it’s pointless.
Speaking from his Washington, D.C. office, Gary was quick to attack the crypto industry, as per usual. According to him, it is a mess — sentiment-driven, unstable, and riddled with scams.
“These 10,000 to 15,000 projects—many of them will not survive,” he said, comparing the crypto space to high-stakes venture capital, except with more pump-and-dump schemes and fraud. For Gary, it was less about innovation and more about survival: of the markets, the investors, and maybe even himself.
Crypto chaos and Gary’s Wild West show
When Gary walked into the SEC in April 2021, Wall Street was still reeling from the GameStop short squeeze. But crypto quickly took center stage. In his first few months on the job, he was already fielding questions about how he’d deal with an industry that seemed allergic to rules.
“I came in, and my predecessor, Jay Clayton, had brought 80 enforcement actions in this area. We’ve brought in about 100 in our four years,” Gary said.
“It was consistent. I’ve been around finance for over four decades. And everything in the markets trade on a mixture of fundamentals and sentiment at any given time. But I’ve never seen a field that’s so much wrapped up in sentiment and not so much about fundamentals.”
That might be a little bit true, but the work clearly left its mark. From the collapse of FTX and the downfall of Sam Bankman-Fried to the collapse of Terra and the downfall of Hyung Do Kwon, Gary’s SEC went after crypto with the kind of vigor you’d expect from a guy who famously describes the industry as “the Wild West.” And yet, the sentiment he’s leaving with is exhaustion.
Gary’s own background made his stance even more controversial. Before his time at the SEC, he taught blockchain and digital assets at MIT, leading many in the industry to believe he’d be their ally.
“When you’re in academia or not in this job, you can study something and observe it. But when you’re in this job… you do what you can to protect the investing public,” he explained. In other words, teaching blockchain and regulating it are two very different ballgames.
TikTok celebrations and Trump’s promise to fire him
If you thought Gary was unpopular in crypto circles, wait until you hear how TikTok reacted to his resignation. The announcement started a wave of celebration on the platform, with users calling him a “demon” and celebrating the end of what they saw as his reign of terror.
“This demon has been torturing companies for like three to four years,” one user said. Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump made firing Gary a key part of his campaign, promising to remove him on day one of his administration.
But Trump won’t get the chance. Gary announced he’d be stepping down on Inauguration Day at noon, effectively sparing himself from what would’ve likely been a high-profile dismissal.
Elon Musk’s D.O.G.E: Gary isn’t buying it
One of the most surprising moments in Gary’s interview was his blunt take on Trump and Elon Musk’s D.O.G.E initiative, the department that was started to cut out government spending linked to spiraling national debt.
They want to remove at least $2 trillion per year, which is an insane amount of money that could break an economy. And even Elon himself has admitted that it’s impossible to achieve.
When asked how the SEC would handle a staff cut, Gary said:
“I think it would be unfortunate because we’re already spread too thin. We get 40 or 50,000 tips, complaints and referrals a year. It’s unnecessary.”
He added that crypto accounts for roughly 18% of those cases. “At any given time, we only have the staff to maybe investigate some small portion,” he said, adding that the workload forces the SEC to triage constantly.
Beyond crypto, Gary also warned about the potential risks of AI in financial markets. From robo-advisors to opaque algorithms, he argued that the rapid growth of AI could lead to conflicts of interest that harm everyday investors. He asked:
“Your robo-advisor, are they giving you advice on behalf of the asset manager or you? And who are they putting first?”
As he prepares to leave, Gary has already met with his presumptive successor, Paul Atkins. The two had a private conversation, but Gary shared a piece of advice he’d received from former SEC Chair Richard Breeden: “Every single day in the job is one day closer to when you will join the formers club.”
Gary took that to mean he should use each day wisely—a sentiment he tried to pass on to Atkins. “It’s really about our capital markets that are 40% to 45% of the world’s capital markets,” Gary said. “You gotta keep it good disclosure, free of fraud manipulation, and really have, as best you can, competitive all-to-all trading.”
