The Trump-Connected Brad Bondi Is a New SEC Chair Contender and Pro-Crypto

The lawyer has represented both Trump and Elon Musk’s companies.

Brad Bondi, Global Co-Chair of Investigations and White Collar Defense at law firm Paul Hastings, is one of several people being considered as president-elect Donald Trump’s appointment to the SEC, three sources connected to either Bondi or indirectly to Trump’s transition team told Unchained. Bondi has emerged as a potential pick this week amidst a flurry of news articles suggesting an array of names in the mix, like former CFTC Commissioner, “Crypto Dad” Chris Giancarlo, Robinhood attorney Robert Stebbins, and former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins. 

Bondi is “well versed in financial regulation of all types, crypto included,” said Ashley Ebersole, General Counsel at blockchain firm 0x and who was Senior Counsel at the SEC from 2015 to 2019. “Brad would also be willing to do the hard work of enacting regulations that allow crypto to continue its growth trajectory and provided [sic] guidelines for enabling this growth to occur without exposing companies and investors to a constant enforcement risk.”

Bondi declined to comment for this story.   

At the July Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, Trump promised to “fire” Gary Gensler on day one of his administration, raising hopes that he would replace the unpopular chair with someone who is supportive of the industry’s desire to not be regulated as if it only trades in unregistered securities. According to a source speaking with friends of the transition team, Trump is looking to appoint someone with a contrarian attitude and who is friendly to Wall Street as well as crypto. 

Read More: What Gary Gensler Could Still Do Against Crypto in His Remaining Days as SEC Chair

The soon-to-be shakeup at the SEC is generating a flurry of news. Gensler hinted that he would be resigning from the Commission soon in a speech at the Practising Law Institute Thursday morning. Also on Thursday morning, Giancarlo posted on X that he was not interested in becoming SEC Chair. “I’ve made clear that I’ve already cleaned up earlier Gary Gensler mess @CFTC and don’t want to have to do it again,” he said. It is unclear how seriously Stebbins and Atkins are currently being considered, with vetting appearing to be in flux. 

Though Bondi’s work with crypto firms is not public, two sources close to Bondi say that he has advised several DeFi projects, with one source saying they have personally exchanged crypto trading strategies with Bondi for several years. Since 2008, Bondi has also, through academic papers, been critiquing the SEC’s tendency to rein in industries through scattered enforcement actions, suggesting that he would be prepared to quickly reverse Gensler’s policies. 

Aside from crypto, Bondi rises as a likely candidate for SEC chair due to several connections he has with the Trump administration. For example, Bondi represented the SPAC which merged with Truth Social this summer, tying him to Trump’s business interests. Bondi also advised Tesla after it was sued by the SEC for fraud over a tweet from chief executive Elon Musk in which he publicized inaccurate data for its rate of vehicle production, pumping Tesla’s stock price. On Wednesday, Musk was officially appointed to co-lead the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) alongside entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. 

Read More: Memecoin Mania: Dogecoin, Dogwifhat, Pepe, and PNUT Pump on Trump’s Win

Even further, Brad Bondi is the brother of Pam Bondi, a fierce Trump loyalist who defended the former president during the 2020 impeachment trial. Before her brief stint in the White House, Pam Bondi was also the 37th Florida Attorney General. After defending Trump in 2020, she took over leadership of the Trump-focused super political action committee Make America Great Again Action in 2021. 

Brad Bondi is a member of the conservative lawyers association The Federalist Society, and, like SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, he served as General Counsel to former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins. “If you’re Atkins approved, Atkins trained, that wins you a lot of love with Senate Republicans generally,” said George Mason University law professor J.W. Verrett. Atkins is widely respected in conservative legal circles as well as amongst Senate Republicans.

Verrett, who wrote in July about why he thinks Bondi would be a good choice, said of him: “It’s pretty amazing all the boxes he checks.”