"And is that when we do the mic drop?"

In front of the camera, Gary Gensler smiled with the classic "Manba out" pose, concluding his final tweet video - two days after posting, on January 20, 2025, this SEC chairman, notorious in the industry, finally ended his career, with the Japanese-American SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda temporarily taking over the chairman's position, who is relatively more friendly to the crypto industry.

If Federal Reserve Chairman Powell indirectly influences Bitcoin's K-line trend through eight speeches a year, each lasting 30 minutes, Gensler's methods were more direct:

Three months after taking office, he stated he would significantly increase SEC staff to address "Wild West" regulatory issues; made reviewing "emerging technologies and virtual assets" a priority, while defining most coins as "securities" within SEC's regulatory scope; filed lawsuits against major industry companies like Binance, Coinbase, and Ripper, turning internal controls into de facto regulations...

Going back six years, sitting in an MIT classroom, despite hearing classmates describe the new professor's impressive background: once one of Goldman Sachs' youngest partners, who also secured a $3.6 billion TV broadcasting contract for NFL.

But you would never have imagined that this smiling, bald professor teaching Bitcoin and encouraging students to create an on-chain Uber would become the SEC chairman and turn against the industry - similarly, the expectations of Trump bringing an eternal bull market to Bitcoin gradually dissipated even before his inauguration.

Regardless of whether the evaluation is good or bad, at least until now, Gary Gensler's name continues to be mentioned.

Baltimore's Financial Police

Time magazine described this man in a 2012 exclusive interview:

"For someone who strikes fear into shameless bankers, Gensler is quite amiable. This 55-year-old single father often smiles, jokes, and self-deprecatingly describes his role in making our financial system safer, while sharing the dangers and joys of raising three daughters (22-year-old Anna, 21-year-old Lee, and 16-year-old Isabel) after his wife Francesca passed away from cancer in 2006 after 20 years of marriage."

In an interview with The Washington Post, he believed that the SEC "has strong powers, but as I discovered, there are some loopholes," agreeing on the necessity of cooperating with Congress while questioning whether digital assets can be a lasting alternative to public currency. "History tells us that private monetary forms do not last long."

If before the FTX collapse, the SEC chairman's attitude towards regulation was still in a state of doubt, after the collapse, it became a one-way path.

Everything evolved just like when Gary Gensler became the CFTC chairman - obviously, the goodwill released by Ripple was not accepted, and in the following years, the former and SEC engaged in multiple legal battles over whether XRP is a security, while institutions like Coinbase, BlockFi, and Kraken were successively sued and ultimately paid varying amounts of fines.

And the investigation led by the US Department of Justice against Binance since 2018 finally reached a conclusion after 5 years: a $4.368 billion fine, $175 million bail, and 4 months of imprisonment, in exchange for a comprehensive settlement with multiple US regulatory agencies - of course, excluding the SEC.

But just after Trump's return to power, the SEC and Binance jointly requested the court to suspend its lawsuit against Binance, "waiting for the Trump administration to develop a new digital asset framework".

Another important event was the approval of the Bitcoin spot ETF. Although Gensler had previously expressed opposition to approving a pure Bitcoin ETF ("still susceptible to fraud and market manipulation") and had rejected multiple company applications, when BlackRock submitted an ETF application to the SEC in June 2023, the market still believed "this time it's certain".

On January 10, 2024, in the early morning, the SEC officially posted a message on social media, stating that the Bitcoin spot ETF was approved. Bitcoin instantly rose to around $48,000 under the news, and people were jubilant, celebrating the arrival of a new era.

A few minutes later, Gary Gensler posted a message on his official Twitter: "Not approved, the SEC's official Twitter was hacked, and the previous tweet was posted by hackers."

Expecting Another "Savior"

Gary Gensler unsurprisingly resigned - although there was still more than a year left until his term ends in 2026, there would be no place for him in the new Trump administration. Those expecting Trump to take office, just like those who once expected this SEC chairman, believe that the new ruler "will be beneficial to the crypto market".

Trump indeed has more reason to be friendly to the industry: Coinbase, Jump Crypto, A16z, and Ripple are all major donors to Trump's Super PAC; his second son launched a DeFi project World Liberty Financial and invited a series of well-known figures in the circle, including Justin Sun, as advisors; he also announced that he would nominate Paul Atkins, CEO of Patomak Partner and a crypto advocate, as the new SEC chairman, and "establish a US strategic Bitcoin reserve".

The story reached its climax when Trump announced the launch of his MEME coin. On January 18, Trump posted on his social account, announcing the launch of his personal MEME coin TRUMP, claiming it to be the only "official Trump MEME coin".

12 hours after token issuance, TRUMP's trading price reached around $30, with an FDV of $30 billion.

36 hours after token issuance, TRUMP's trading price reached a high of around $85.2, with an FDV of up to $85.2 billion.

48 hours after token issuance, Trump's wife Melania posted on social media, "Melania official MEME is online". Besides Melania rising to $13.69, other coins plummeted, with TRUMP halving to $35, and Bitcoin quickly dropping after touching a new high of $110,000.

16 days after token issuance, World Liberty Financial liquidated almost all ETH assets and transferred them to Coinbase Prime, while Trump's second son Eric Trump stated on social platforms: "Now is the best time to increase ETH holdings."

47 days after token issuance, Trump signed an executive order to officially establish a US strategic Bitcoin reserve, with approximately 200,000 Bitcoins held by the federal government to be transferred to this strategic reserve, and "neither selling externally nor increasing new coins through the market", with Bitcoin retracing to $77,000.

66 days after token issuance, TRUMP is priced at $11.3, with an FDV of $1.13 billion; Melania is priced at $0.677, with an FDV of $677 million; although Bitcoin remains at a high of $86,000, researchers from The DeFi Report suggest: "The bear market may take 9-12 months to end."

John Cassidy, a New Yorker magazine author, commented on Trump's new policy before Trump took office:

"... As a government supporting cryptocurrencies prepares to take power + crypto investors cheer, this bears some resemblance to the internet bubble of the late 90s, which I documented in a book over two decades ago. At the time, some long-term market participants and observers, including myself, were equally excited, equally predicting prices would go higher, even higher, and equally uneasy."

"... But regardless of the speculative object, when I wrote about the internet stock bubble, I concluded that large-scale speculative events depend on 'four horses': new technology exciting investors; effective methods they can use to communicate; active participation from the financial industry; and a supportive policy environment."

"... The worst-case scenario is a comprehensive financial collapse, which I saw many times in the 90s, where people would frantically hype something, often forming a bubble. Cryptocurrencies could experience a similar situation, and the government might tacitly or even actively support such speculation."

Gary Gensler ultimately failed to regulate the crypto industry as he had controlled over-the-counter derivatives over a decade ago, and the industry neither welcomed nor missed him.

For participants, a lax environment lacking regulation is what they desire, or in other words, "Life and death are determined by fate, wealth and honor are in heaven."

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