The Biden administration has announced the nomination to the SEC Commission of an advisor to Pat Toomey, one of the most pro-bitcoin Senator in the United States.
Mark T. Uyeda (pictured right), the current Securities Counsel at the Senate Committee on Banking, has experience in SEC’s Division of Investment Management.
That’s the department that is seen as more friendly to cryptos in a federal agency that is accused of making law through enforcement.
Yet, Uyeda seems to not have made any public comments on bitcoin or cryptos. Working for Toomey however presumably has allowed him to see some of the benefits of crypto assets.
Jaime Lizarraga (pictured left) is another nominee. He is an aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Pelosi has also made no comments on bitcoin, but some call her the best trader on Wall Street. Her views on crypto therefore are probably: ‘does this make me money?’
These two will be joining Hester Peirce, the crypto friendly SEC commissioner with Allison Herren Lee to be replaced.
Allison was seen as a potentially decisive vote on the spot bitcoin ETF matter when she was nominated by Trump. However she chose instead to stay completely clear of cryptos.
Both these two new nominees will be needed to force Gary Gensler’s hand, the SEC chair that opened his tenure with some rhetorical confrontation, but appears to be re-measuring the changing air.
The Democratic party is currently split, or rather upgrading, on cryptos. There always (since 2014 at least) have been bitcoin supporters in high levels on the left, at least in UK, but Republicans have been more forward in supporting this space than Democrats.
That’s changing. The Washington Post has a nice detailed report on crypto political donation efforts, including that Coinbase apparently hosted a previously unreported fundraiser for Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.).
Some crypto PACs have raised $20 million towards efforts to get crypto friendly politicians in Washington.
Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), who has angered this space more than any US lawmaker, is to be primaried by Aarika Rhodes, a crypto supporter.
These are just some of the specifics to illustrate a changing wind whereby being anti-crypto simply doesn’t pay, either in votes or donations because this is a $2 trillion market now, and so a lot have a lot to lose, or indeed gain.
Something that the new commissioners, if they’re approved which seems likely, may well take into consideration regardless of their party because if their bosses are upgrading, they certainly need to do so too.
Source: https://www.trustnodes.com/2022/04/07/new-sec-nominees-may-change-bitcoin-etf-calculations