SEC's Last Major Legal Official Exits, Leaving Clean Slate for Trump Era

With the wide counsel stepping down, immoderate of the main characters successful the crypto industry's caller clashes with the Securities and Exchange Commission are out.

Jan 16, 2025, 10:07 p.m. UTC

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's apical lawyer, General Counsel Megan Barbero, will measurement distant adjacent week, joining the exodus of apical bureau officials who had been liable for the SEC's ineligible battles with the crypto manufacture successful caller years.

"Her measured proposal and judgement person been captious to the determination making of the Commission," said Chair Gary Gensler, successful a connection astir Barbero's exit, which is acceptable for January 20. That's the time Gensler, the writer of the SEC's crypto stance, is besides leaving, conscionable arsenic President-elect Donald Trump is sworn successful for a 2nd term.

Barbero was the apical lawyer astatine the agency, liable for however its ineligible section conducted its disputes with crypto businesses successful national courts and for advising connected its enforcement posture. She had served arsenic wide counsel since February 2023.

The SEC's enforcement chief, Gurbir Grewal, left successful October, and the accounting caput who was down the agency's arguable crypto accounting policy, Paul Munter, besides announced his pending departure this week.

Read More: Crypto's U.S. Banking Problem Likely Among the First Things Tackled Under Trump

Jesse Hamilton

Jesse Hamilton is CoinDesk's lawman managing exertion connected the Global Policy and Regulation team, based successful Washington, D.C. Before joining CoinDesk successful 2022, helium worked for much than a decennary covering Wall Street regularisation astatine Bloomberg News and Businessweek, penning astir the aboriginal whisperings among national agencies trying to determine what to bash astir crypto. He’s won respective nationalist honors successful his reporting career, including from his clip arsenic a warfare analogous successful Iraq and arsenic a constabulary newsman for newspapers. Jesse is simply a postgraduate of Western Washington University, wherever helium studied journalism and history. He has nary crypto holdings.