Senate committee's planned vote to confirm SEC Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw is up in the air following pushback

U.S. senators' vote to renominate Securities and Exchange Commission's Caroline Crenshaw is now up in the air following pushback from the digital asset industry over the commissioner's anti-crypto stance. The vote is "tbd" [to be determined], according to a person with knowledge of Crenshaw's nomination process said in a note to The Block.

The vote was scheduled for Wednesday as part of a U.S. Senate Banking Committee hearing. The chair of that committee, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio., said Republicans blocked the panel from holding the vote to nominate Crenshaw and Gordon Ito to the Financial Stability Oversight Council, according to a statement released later on Wednesday.

Committees that meet more than two hours after the Senate convenes require the unanimous agreement of all senators, which is usually granted, Brown said. However, Republicans objected to a meeting to vote.

“This is why people hate Washington," Brown said in the statement. "Corporate special interests have run a disgusting smear campaign against Caroline Crenshaw, an Army reservist and public servant who has been nominated and confirmed by a Republican President and Republican Senate. She has been thoroughly vetted and has gone through every step in the nomination process. Republican Senators are doing the bidding of corporate special interests and standing in the way of her confirmation.”

Some in the crypto industry have called for Crenshaw's removal, citing her dissent after the approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded products earlier this year. In her statement, Crenshaw warned of fraud, manipulation, and the potential for investors to falsely believe they had protections.

Crenshaw could present an "impediment" to a regulatory framework that fosters innovation, Carbone said.

"The SEC needs leaders unencumbered by an entrenched bias against digital assets and the industry, the markets, and the millions of Americans who seek to engage with these transformative technologies deserve a reset and the establishment of a new dynamic," Carbone said.

Advocacy group Stand with Crypto's Executive Director Logan Dobson also pushed against Crenshaw's renomination, citing election results.

“Crypto voters came out strong in the last election, sending pro-crypto candidates to the House, Senate, and White House, and they expect to see policymakers embracing this transformative technology," Dobson said in a statement. "Commissioner Crenshaw has been a consistent anti-crypto voice on the SEC, and we will be scoring votes in her favor in both committee and on the floor of the Senate as being anti-crypto on the Stand With Crypto scorecard.”

SEC's makeup 

If Crenshaw is confirmed, she will be the sole Democrat on the SEC's commission. Fellow Democratic Commissioner Jaime Lizárraga said he plans to leave the agency in January to spend more time with his family and his wife, who is fighting breast cancer, Bloomberg Law reported last month. Earlier, Democratic SEC Chair Gary Gensler also said he will step down the day of President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration.

Trump has tapped crypto-friendly former regulator Paul Atkins to lead the SEC.

This now leaves three Republican Commissioners — Mark Uyeda, Hester Peirce and soon-to-be Atkins — along with potentially Democratic Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw to lead the SEC.

"With there being three members from one political party, once the Senate confirms Paul Atkins, I think Democrats expect that he would nominate someone from a different political party relatively quickly, but this has to be weighed against the many other Presidential appointments that take priority," said Teresa Goody Guillén, partner at BakerHostetler law firm and former litigation counsel for the SEC, said in an interview with The Block.

That new commissioner can't be Republican due to a statute that says no more than three commissioners can be in the same political party. However, they don't have to necessarily be Democrat either, they can be Independent, Libertarian or any other party that's not Republican, she said.

A shift in committee leadership

Brown lost his race in November in Ohio to crypto-friendly Republican candidate Bernie Moreno. As chair of the Senate Banking Committee, Brown held the purse strings for which legislation was brought up, including crypto bills. Brown has called for a crackdown on the use of cryptocurrency to fund terrorism and evade sanctions and has told federal agencies to use their current authority to go after bad actors in the industry.

Scott could chair the Senate Banking Committee and has supported the crypto industry. In August, he proposed creating a subcommittee focused on the digital asset industry if he became chair. A spokesperson for Scott previously told The Block that the lawmaker plans to work on a framework to regulate digital assets should he become chair.

Crenshaw was confirmed by the Senate and sworn in on Aug. 17, 2020. Crenshaw was previously an attorney in the SEC's Division of Examinations and the Division of Investment Management.