For months, Donald Trump has promised that if re-elected, he would fire U.S. Securities and Exchange Commision (SEC’s) current chair, Gary Gensler, and end the agency’s crypto-hostile approach. Now, a clearer picture is emerging of who the former president might tap to run America’s top Wall Street watchdog.
Robinhood Chief Legal Officer Dan Gallagher has emerged as a top choice to run the SEC should Trump win in November, Politico reported on Monday, citing conversations with a dozen unnamed lobbyists, securities lawyers, and former regulators.
Gallagher is not only helping lead Robinhood’s push into crypto, but he also previously served as a Republican commissioner to the SEC during the Obama administration. Prior to that, the veteran lawyer worked as counsel to multiple Republican appointees to the SEC during George W. Bush’s presidency.
In a statement shared with Decrypt, Gallagher implied that he would be open to accepting the SEC chair position should Trump offer it to him.
“It is an honor to have my name included in any discussion of who may be the next SEC Chairman,” he said. “I care deeply about the agency, and my hope for any new SEC Chairman would be that they foster access to the markets, and ensure the U.S. remains at the forefront of financial innovation.”
Gallagher is intimately familiar with the SEC’s skeptical approach to the crypto industry. In May, Robinhood disclosed that it had received a Wells Notice from the regulator, signaling that it planned to sue the popular stock trading app for offering U.S. customers the ability to buy and sell about 15 different cryptocurrencies.
At the time, Gallagher pledged to fight any lawsuit the SEC might bring against Robinhood, and insisted that “the assets listed on our platform are not securities.”
To date, the SEC has not yet filed a lawsuit against Robinhood over its crypto business. But the agency has filed similar suits against crypto exchanges like Coinbase, Binance, and Kraken.
Other names reported by Politico as top Trump picks for SEC chair include noted crypto advocate and Trump’s former Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chair, Chris Giancarlo, and Hester Peirce, a noted critic of Gensler’s crypto approach, who is currently one of two Republican appointees to the SEC.
Edited by Andrew Hayward