If Trump Wins, Could Crypto Get Hester Peirce as SEC Chair?

Unfortunately, the answer is probably not. 

No matter who wins next week’s presidential election, it’s likely a new chair will be appointed to the SEC. Wealthy donors to Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign have been pushing her to replace current chair Gary Gensler, and sources told Unchained that her transition team is vetting candidates. Former president Donald Trump, meanwhile, has promised the crypto community that he would “fire” current chair Gary Gensler on his first day in office (something he couldn’t legally do, though he has the power to immediately demote him to a commissioner role). 

This has left the crypto community hopeful that the SEC may have a new chair in 2025 that is less hostile to the industry. The industry’s dream pick would be Commissioner Hester Peirce, who has been publicly critical of Gensler’s strategy of regulating the industry through lawsuits rather than rulemaking. On paper, she also seems to be a likely pick if Trump wins the White House, given she has been the most outspoken Republican on the Commission under Gensler’s leadership, and presidents typically nominate chairs who are from their own party. 

Read More: Can Gary Gensler Be ‘Fired’ If Trump Becomes President Again? 

But Peirce does not want to be SEC chair and is looking to depart from the agency at the end of her term in June 2025, according to four sources who know her or are connected to people who speak with her regularly. The Commissioner has earned the nickname “Crypto Mom” for her outspoken dissents to Chair Gary Gensler’s aggressive enforcement of crypto, leading many to hope that she would be chosen by Donald Trump as Gensler’s replacement.

According to a spokesperson from Commissioner Peirce’s office, “the only thing Commissioner Peirce has thought about doing after she leaves the Commission is becoming a beekeeper, and even there she’s having cold feet.”

Hester Peirce Isn’t Interested in Politics 

The sources were in agreement that Peirce has been making it clear she wanted to leave the agency for at least several months, with one of the sources first hearing about her desire to leave a year ago. The sources were in disagreement about whether the Trump appointee would leave the commission to work in the private sector or academic research. 

“She cares more about getting it right than she cares about politics,” said Ashley Ebersole, general counsel for crypto exchange infrastructure provider 0x. Ebersole’s time at the SEC as Senior Counsel overlapped with Peirce’s time as commissioner for nearly two years. Though he said he was not party to conversations about her leaving the agency, Ebersole was willing to speak with Unchained about her character, which he, like the sources speaking on background, described as driven by strong libertarian values and respect for public service. 

Read More: SEC Commissioner Peirce Expresses Regret Over ‘Regulatory Ambiguity’ at ETHDenver

That said, three of the sources issued the caveat that Peirce could, like many public servants, be convinced to stay if called upon directly by the President. However, she is not angling for the role of interim chair if Trump wins the presidency and demotes Gensler, as he has promised, according to three sources. Commissioner Mark Uyeda is more open to the role, two of the sources said. 

A History of Dissents

Peirce has repeatedly pushed the SEC to develop clearer rules for the cryptocurrency industry, often writing dissenting opinions on SEC enforcement actions against alleged unregistered securities offerings like those against LBRY, Stoner Cats and Kraken. She has also dissented on the commission’s proposed definition of “exchange,” which could adversely affect DeFi, and its denial of a request for updated rulemaking on its so-called “gag rule,” which says that defendants cannot deny or criticize the SEC’s allegations after a settlement and has frustrated crypto organizations. She recently sparred with Gensler on the way the SEC has overseen the industry in an oversight hearing before the House Financial Services Committee.

Read More: Gensler Grilled in Congressional Hearing Over SEC’s Approach to Regulating Crypto

As a Republican and member of the conservative law and public policy organization The Federalist Society, Peirce has made public statements that typically advocate for limited government intervention. As commissioner, she has published two versions of a Token Safe Harbor Proposal in 2020 and 2021 which would provide blockchain developers with a three-year grace period in which to decentralize before being subjected to securities law registration requirements. She told TechCrunch earlier this year she still wanted to push for the plan.

“I’ve been at the agency for over five years, and it’s very frustrating to me that in that time we haven’t done something more productive,” Peirce told Unchained in June 2023. 

Peirce is currently serving in her second term, and three sources said that she would have left the commission earlier if she had not thought she was critical as a dissenting voice. “If you’re serving in the minority and you leave, [it] makes it that much easier for the majority to push through anything without a fight,” one source summarized. 

Read More: SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce on BitMEX, DeFi and a Token Safe Harbor

Before her appointment to the commission in January 2018, Peirce worked in both academia and government roles as both a lawyer and researcher. She was most recently a senior research fellow at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center, studying financial regulation.