On Friday (November 22), Bitcoin soared to $98,979 and continued to fluctuate above $98,000. Gary Gensler, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), confirmed that he will step down when Donald Trump is sworn in on January 20, 2025. The court overturned the broker-dealer rules set by the SEC, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) excluded crypto wallets from regulation.
SEC Chairman to step down in January
The SEC's official website announced that Gensler will officially step down at noon on January 20, 2025. It is reported that Gensler has promoted a number of important reforms including capital market efficiency, resilience and integrity since taking office on April 17, 2021. During his tenure, the SEC completed thousands of enforcement actions, recovered approximately $21 billion in fines, and returned $2.7 billion to damaged investors.
Gensler has significant enforcement efforts in the field of cryptocurrency, taking actions against false transactions, registration violations, etc. According to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission data, approximately 18% of reports in fiscal year 2024 were related to cryptocurrency. In addition, he pushed for a number of rule reforms, including shortening the stock settlement cycle to one day, enhancing cyber and climate risk disclosures, and increasing oversight of investment advisers.
Gensler previously served as chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and has extensive experience in the Obama administration and on Wall Street.
Trump's pre-election promise to fire Gensler on his first day in office is now ready to come true. In addition, according to Watcher.Guru, as Trump is about to appoint the first new cryptocurrency-focused position in the White House, Trump's cryptocurrency advisory committee is expected to establish the country's first strategic Bitcoin reserve. In fact, according to Reuters, the re-elected US President is seeking to establish a committee to manage cryptocurrency-related policies.
Court strikes down broker-dealer rules in major cryptocurrency victory
CoinTelegraph reported that the broker-dealer rules set by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission have been overturned by a judge. The rules changed the definition of "dealer" to include all liquidity providers and automated market makers that control more than $50 million in funds.
"The court finds that the SEC exceeded its statutory authority by crafting such a broad definition of dealer, departing from the text, history, and structure of the (Exchange Act)," U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor said.
Marisa Tashman Coppel, legal director for the Blockchain Association cryptocurrency advocacy group, called the ruling a “huge victory” for the nascent cryptocurrency industry.
Despite the legal victory, the SEC still has the opportunity to appeal the decision to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and try to push the proposed broker-dealer rule again.
On February 6, 2024, the SEC adopted a broker-dealer rule change that expanded the definitions of “dealer” and “dealer in government securities” under existing securities laws. This change in legal definitions will impose significant and often unenforceable regulatory requirements on many crypto projects—particularly decentralized networks without a central authority that cannot enforce Know Your Customer (KYC) or Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations.
As a result, the rule change has been heavily criticized by crypto industry executives, investors, lawmakers and even SEC commissioners including Mark Uyeda.
“Today’s action codifies the Commission’s view that the definition of ‘dealer’ is effectively unrestricted. The public should be concerned about the enormous scope of this purported jurisdiction,” Uyeda commented.
Hester Peirce, a commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission who is considered the “mother of cryptocurrency,” similarly criticized the change in the broker-dealer definition and claimed that the regulator was exceeding its authority by trying to regulate decentralized protocols.
In April, crypto industry advocacy groups moved past the criticism and sued the SEC over the rule change. The lawsuit, filed by the Blockchain Association and the Texas Crypto Freedom Alliance, accused the regulator of overreaching and stifling innovation in the United States.
Bitcoin Technical Analysis
Bitcoin successfully achieved the awaited new target of $97500 and encountered solid resistance near it, currently showing some bearish bias, affected by stochastic negativity, waiting to get positive motivation to push the price to resume the bullish wave, targeting the $100000 barrier as the next main stop.
EMA 50 continues to support the suggested bullish wave, which will remain valid unless the $93,260 level is broken and remains below it.
The current expected trading range is between the $94,000 support and $98,500 resistance.
