Gary Gensler: The SEC Chair Who Declared War on Crypto

Gary Gensler served as SEC Chair from April 2021 to January 2025, and during that period he became the most controversial figure in crypto regulation. A former Goldman Sachs executive and MIT professor who had taught courses on blockchain, Gensler was initially expected to be crypto-friendly. Instead, he pursued an aggressive enforcement-first approach, declaring that “most crypto tokens are securities” and filing lawsuits against Coinbase, Binance, Kraken, and dozens of smaller projects.

Gensler’s enforcement strategy was deliberate. Rather than writing clear rules for the industry, the SEC used enforcement actions to establish precedent — suing first and letting courts define the regulatory framework through case law. The approach infuriated the crypto industry, which argued it was being punished for unclear rules. Gensler countered that the rules were already clear (securities law applies to crypto) and that the industry was deliberately ignoring them.

The lawsuits against Coinbase and Binance in June 2023 were the highest-profile actions. The SEC accused Coinbase of operating as an unregistered securities exchange and Binance of multiple securities violations, commingling customer funds, and misleading investors. Both cases were still winding through courts when Gensler departed. The Coinbase case in particular raised existential questions: if the SEC won, most crypto tokens would be classified as securities, and most crypto exchanges would need to register — a process many argued was practically impossible under existing frameworks.

Gensler’s departure in January 2025 following a change in administration was celebrated by the crypto industry. His successor, Paul Atkins, was expected to take a more accommodating approach. But Gensler’s legacy was already established: he had forced the industry to take regulation seriously, even if his methods were widely criticized. The question of whether crypto tokens are securities remains unresolved, but Gensler ensured it would be answered through the courts rather than ignored.

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