SEC’s lone Democratic commissioner and crypto skeptic Caroline Crenshaw to depart

Crypto skeptic and the only Democratic commissioner serving at the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Caroline Crenshaw, will depart from the regulator.

The SEC said in a statement Friday that Crenshaw was leaving the body after more than 10 years of service.

Crenshaw’s departure leaves just Republican commissioners now working at the Wall Street watchdog.

“We join our colleagues across the agency in thanking Commissioner Crenshaw for her service and in wishing her every success in the chapters ahead,” the regulator’s statement read.

“We know that she will continue to have a profound and positive influence wherever her dedication leads her next, and we thank her once again for her exemplary service.”

DL News reached out to Crenshaw and the SEC for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Crenshaw locked horns with the crypto industry as a commissioner following her 2020 appointment. Brian Armstrong, CEO of America’s biggest crypto exchange, Coinbase, at one point even called for her to be voted out.

“Caroline Crenshaw was a failure as an SEC Commissioner and should be voted out,” he wrote on X in December 2024.

“She tried to block the Bitcoin ETFs, and was worse than Gensler on some issues (which I didn’t think was possible).”

Following the historic January 2024 approval of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the US, Crenshaw called the move “unsound and ahistorical.”

“And worse, they put us on a wayward path that could further sacrifice investor protection,” she added.

The SEC under chair Gary Gensler during Democratic president Joe Biden’s administration hit the crypto industry’s biggest companies with a long list of lawsuits, leading major players in the space to accuse the regulator of stoking innovation.

But since Republican President Donald Trump’s election in November 2024, the regulator has taken a far more friendly approach to the space.

President Trump campaigned on a ticket to help the crypto industry and received financial backing from digital asset entrepreneurs.

The SEC has since gone on to approve other crypto ETFs and dismissed or suspended the majority of its enforcement actions against cryptocurrency companies.

Mathew Di Salvo is a news correspondent with DL News. Got a tip? Email at mdisalvo@dlnews.com.