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Gary Gensler, whose hard line on crypto has been a stuff for nightmares for both industry execs and ordinary bagholders alike, is gone at last—and bullish momentum is already in full force.
XRP, which has been the subject of a heated legal dispute between its issuer Ripple and the SEC since December 2020, seems to be the biggest beneficiary of Gensler’s departure. The lawsuit, brought under the tenure of Trump’s nominee Jay Clayton and kept alive under Gensler, alleged that Ripple's sales of XRP constituted unregistered securities offerings and sought a $1 billion penalty for the company.
Since then, Ripple has been entangled in a long and exhausting legal battle that cost the company more than $100 million, according to CLO Stuart Alderoty. In July 2023, Ripple scored a partial victory as Judge Analisa Torres ruled that XRP was not a security when sold to the public on the exchange, but could be classified as such when offered to institutional investors. The Judge also slashed the size of the penalty for Ripple from $1 billion to $125 million.
In October 2023, the SEC dropped the lawsuit against Ripple co-founders Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen but contested the sum of the penalty awarded by the judge.
Now that the dreaded SEC Chair will be gone soon, Ripple’s tough battle with the agency may be nearing its end. Should this be the case, this would potentially clear the path for the XRP ETF and Ripple’s IPO which was postponed due to the company’s legal troubles.
Gensler’s departure was unequivocally interpreted by the market as a bullish signal, sending the price of XRP soaring 8% on Thursday. The newest boost adds nicely to the 50% gain over the last seven days and 120% growth over the past month.
At the time of writing, XRP is trading at $1.26, its three-year-high last seen in September 2021. Yet some traders anticipate that an even more impressive bull run may be just around the corner.
Crypto chart analyst and XRP bull Dark Defender on Twitter/X set the price target for XRP at $1.88 if the altcoin manages to break the small triangles of the bull flag pattern.
Meanwhile, CrediBULL Crypto expressed confidence in XRP outperforming BTC and ETH in the near future, forecasting a new all-time high ‘quicker than most are expecting,’ In replies to the port, the trader added that $9 would be ‘epic.’
Gary Gensler will step down as the Chair of the SEC on January 20, when Trump will officially assume the presidency after the inauguration. During his campaign, Trump was transparent about his plans to fire Gensler from day one, much to the applause of the crypto community.
While technically Gensler’s tenure should last until 2026, it’s common for agency officials to step down when the new administration takes the reigns.
“I thank President Biden for entrusting me with this incredible responsibility. The SEC has met our mission and enforced the law without fear or favor,” Gensler said in a statement on Thursday.
The announcement was celebrated with a champagne shower on Crypto Twitter, with many industry advocates reacting with memes and jokes.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse ironically posted that Gensler’s departure is first on the list of the things he’s thankful for this Thanksgiving.
Elon Musk also reacted to the announcement, asking Gensler if it was true that the SEC only works one day a month in the office. The tech mogul has repeatedly clashed with the SEC and recently became a powerful ally of Trump, who announced Musk as his pick to run the new agency called the Department of Government Efficiency, or D.O.G.E.
Hayden Adams, the founder of the biggest decentralized exchange Unsiwap, reacted by sharing an X-Men gif captioned ‘Demon, be gone!’ With Gensler’s departure, Adams and Uniswap team can now breathe a sigh of relief: in April, SEC issued a Wells notice to the platform, indicating that the enforcement action may be underway.
Meanwhile, industry leaders are seeking a seat in the crypto advisory council, which Trump has promised as a part of his crypto-friendly administration. The council is likely to be housed under the White House's National Economic Council and composed of the leading executives from the US crypto companies. According to Reuters, several spots have already been filled by representatives of venture capital firms, namely Paradigm and Andreessen Horowitz's crypto arm a16z.
While many crypto execs are already eyeing ways to get their foot in the door of the White House, the seat of the SEC Chair remains vacant. Trump hasn’t yet officially announced his pick for the agency chief, but several contenders for the role have emerged.
One of them is Dan Gallagher, who served as the SEC attorney under Barack Obama and is currently a top lawyer at the stock and crypto trading app Robinhood. A frequent crypto conferences goer, Gallagher criticized Gensler’s approach to the digital assets industry and defended Robinhood’s crypto division against SEC’s Wells notice.
Another possible pick for the role of SEC Chair is SEC commissioner Hester Peirce, a fierce defender of the crypto industry against Gensler’s hard line that earned her the moniker ‘Crypto Mom.’ The Republican SEC commissioner Mark Uyeda is also seen as a strong candidate for the job, as he was a known critic of the enforcement-driven regulation for crypto.