President-Elect Joe Biden Has Former CFTC Chief Join His Transition Team

Joe Biden, the President-Elect for the US, has recently announced that Gary Gensler will be part of his transition team. Gensler stands as the former Chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, which means that the move could benefit the blockchain and digital currency spaces.

Serving As Financial Expert Volunteer

Gensler will stand as a financial expert for the transition team, having been given the green light regarding the oversight of transition with financial and banking regulators. Alongside this, he will have transition oversight of the Federal Reserve, as well.

However, it should be noted that Gensler will throw his weight around on a personal capacity, rather than professional, as he joins as a “Volunteer” instead of an employee. The consequence of this, however, is his funding source is also listed as “Volunteer” within the lineup of the transition team.

A Good History Behind Him

Back in the Obama era, seemingly ages ago, Gensler had been appointed for oversight over the CFTC. The man was renowned for being a stringent regulator at the CFTC during his time there, which stretched from 2009 to 2014. Gensler stood as the driving force at that time regarding the massive reforms made within the financial derivatives market, which itself is worth a sizable $400 trillion.

Gensler had previously made it clear that he is convinced that the digital currency space needs a robust regulatory structure in order to reach its complete potential. As reasoning, he stated that this would provide a form of protection in case investors lose their private keys, a catastrophe for any wallet holder, as well as protect against market manipulation.

Crypto Could Benefit

Gensler stands as one of the voices voting for initial coin offerings (ICOs) being regulated as securities. This would make them similar to IPOs and other security issuances, making ICOs subject to their rules. Furthermore, this would bring ICOs under the jurisdiction of the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC.

As it stands now, Gensler also works with the Digital Currency Initiative of MIT Media Lab. He will now serve the transition team alongside his position as a senior advisor at the Digital Currency Initiative. The initiative itself stands as a project dedicated to the research and development of both digital currencies and blockchain technology.

With this new appointment, the digital currency space for the US can breathe a bit easier, if only slightly. It shows that this new administration could have a more open approach to regulating the blockchain and crypto space, which would provide a lot of certainty for the US crypto users.