SEC’s Last Crypto Skeptic Exits; Agency Hits Historic 3-0 Republican Split

The final barrier to a fully pro-crypto securities regulator has fallen.

SEC Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw, the agency’s lone remaining Democrat and a staunch critic of the digital asset industry, will vacate her seat on January 3. Her departure, confirmed in a joint statement by the Commission Friday, leaves the watchdog with a rare 3-0 Republican majority under Chair Paul Atkins.

This vacancy grants the Trump administration unchecked leverage to overhaul federal crypto frameworks before a successor is confirmed.

The 3-0 Mandate

Crenshaw’s exit ends a standoff that began in June 2024 when her formal term expired. While she utilized the statutory 18-month holdover period to maintain a Democratic foothold, the Senate Banking Committee’s refusal to schedule a vote for her renomination effectively forced her hand.

Her departure leaves the Commission comprised solely of Chair Paul Atkins and Commissioners Hester Peirce and Mark Uyeda. All three are Trump appointees or elevations. This 3-0 dynamic is functionally unprecedented in modern SEC history, temporarily suspending the agency’s bipartisan quorum requirements and allowing the Republican bloc to fast-track rulemaking without dissenting procedural delays.

End of the "Ahistorical" Dissent

Crenshaw was the intellectual anchor of the SEC’s crypto-skeptic wing. She is best known for her blistering dissent against the approval of Spot Bitcoin ETFs in January 2024, where she argued the agency’s greenlight was "unsound and ahistorical."

"I am concerned that these products will flood the markets and land squarely in the retirement accounts of US households who can least afford to lose their savings to the fraud and manipulation that appears prevalent in the spot bitcoin markets," Crenshaw wrote in 2024.

Market participants viewed her presence as a lingering litigation risk. Her refusal to settle with major exchanges and insistence on strict "qualified custodian" rules often stalled the more experimental frameworks advocated by Commissioner Peirce.

Institutional Outlook

With the "skeptic bloc" dissolved, the Atkins-led SEC is expected to pivot immediately toward guidance on stablecoin issuance and market structure definitions, key pillars of the administration’s innovation agenda.

While the White House is expected to eventually nominate a Democrat to fill the vacancy (maintaining the statutory 3-2 balance), the current 3-0 interim period offers a window for decisive, unilateral deregulation.