U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw has appeared in the crosshairs of the cryptocurrency industry, including Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, ahead of her reconfirmation.
In a series of social media posts, Katie Biber, chief legal officer at Paradigm, recently highlighted Crenshaw's anti-crypto views, calling her an "unaccountable bureaucrat."
Alex DovbnyaGarlinghouse responded to Biber's thread by stating that he would like to see more action, not just words, from lawmakers after attending a crypto roundtable that was hosted by Congressman Ro Khanna earlier this week.
Crenshaw was sworn into office in August 2020 after being unanimously confirmed by the Senate.
Her term ended in June, but she might continue to serve until 2026 if there is no other candidate who could replace her.
Crenshaw gained notoriety within the cryptocurrency space due to her seemingly anti-crypto stance.
For instance, Crenshaw and SEC Commissioner Jaime Lizárraga were the two dissenting voices that voted against the approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in January. Crenshaw expressed concerns about the high level of fraud within the cryptocurrency market, arguing that the approval of such products could jeopardize investor protection. She said that the crypto market "appears to be Petri dishes of fraudulent conduct" since there is no system oversight.
"Even Gary Gensler bowed to this obviously correct conclusion by the DC Circuit. But not Caroline Crenshaw. In this dissent, she twisted herself into knots to justify disregarding the Court’s explicit command," Biber said.
Former U.S. Senator Pat Toomey recently said that the Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee should "pull all the stops" to block Crenshaw's nomination to the SEC.
Dan Burgin
Vladislav Sopov