One year ago, Gary Gensler resigned as SEC chair amid Trump’s inauguration. His stance on crypto led to Ripple Labs funding PACs supporting pro-crypto candidates. After his resignation, Trump appointed Mark Uyeda as acting chair, resulting in a shift in SEC’s policy towards digital assets.

Under Uyeda, the SEC dropped enforcement actions against Coinbase, Robinhood Crypto, and Uniswap Labs. In a significant move, the SEC also decided to drop its appeal in the Ripple case, signaling a change in approach towards crypto regulation. Lawmakers questioned whether these actions were influenced by Trump’s ties to the industry.

In 2025, the SEC held crypto roundtables to discuss financial privacy, tokenization, and DeFi. While the agency sought input on applying securities laws to the sector, the US Congress worked on passing the CLARITY Act to establish clear guidelines for financial regulators like the SEC. The bill passed the House but awaits Senate approval.

All Democratic commissioners, including Gensler, departed the SEC during Trump’s presidency. Caroline Crenshaw, the last Democratic representation, left in 2026. Gensler returned to MIT to teach finance and continues to speak on crypto, referring to assets like Bitcoin as “speculative.” Trump has not announced plans to nominate new commissioners for the SEC.

Read more at Cointelegraph: One Year After Gensler’s exit, SEC’s Crypto Playbook Looks Very Different