Former SEC Chair Gensler remains defiant, insists most cryptos lack fundamentals

Gary Gensler, the former SEC chairman, who is mainly known as a villain in the crypto community, is back to give explanations on his governance. However, those who were waiting for an apology met a big surprise when the former regulatory chief’s tone implied that “I am proud of what we did.” 

In an interview, Gensler said that he does not regret his actions and that, apart from Bitcoin most of the crypto tokens lack fundamentals. According to him his efforts were all directed to save investors from the dangerous coins.

He said, “For everyday investors, the 5% to 10% of Americans who invest in crypto, it’s a highly speculative, very risky asset,” he said, noting that most tokens trade on “momentum” and “frankly hype.”

XRP’s John Deaton challenges Gensler’s defense 

While speaking about investor protection, Gensler gave an example of one of the fraudsters to be the former founder of FTX. He said, “We were consistently trying to ensure investor protection. And in the midst of it, we had a lot of fraudsters — look at Sam Bankman-Fried […] He wasn’t alone.”

However, according to lawyer John Deaton, Gensler had secret meetings with SBF, and SBF was given a lot of access to regulators like Gensler, the CFTC, and Congress. However, Deaton says that Gensler met with the “Bernie Madoff of Crypto” only twice, once in private. 

According to reports at the time, the meetings were part of SBF’s broader strategy to influence regulation.

I have a question for @CNBC hosts like @davidfaber @SaraEisen @andrewrsorkin @carlquintanilla @BeckyQuick @JoeSquawk, etc. And I don’t ask this disrespectfully, but it boggles my mind:

When Gary Gensler brings up @SBF_FTX how come you guys don’t ask him about his private… https://t.co/3B0pT9mv4P

— John E Deaton (@JohnEDeaton1) September 19, 2025

In an X post, Deaton says that SBF gave more money to Democrats than George Soros. At his trial, SBF’s co-executive and ex-girlfriend said that SBF gave $10M to the Biden Administration so that they could get in touch with Gensler and other people. According to reports, Ryan Salame, an FTX executive, pleaded guilty to making illegal campaign contributions.

Deaton added that the GOP Majority Whip of the US Congress said that Gensler had agreed to a short-form registration for crypto that supported SBF. Therefore, the claim of protecting investors from Fraud is just noise.

Gensler led a regulation by enforcement regime 

Gensler was in charge of the SEC from 2021 to 2025. During that time, the SEC took an aggressive stance against the crypto industry, which many stakeholders called “regulation by enforcement.”

His efforts were directed to lawsuits. The SEC was against Binance and Coinbase crypto exchanges, classifying many crypto coins as securities, including Ripple (XRP). However, the XRP case against Ripple is officially over after both parties dismissed their appeals in August 2025 under Paul Atkins. 

This finalized a 2023 ruling that XRP sold on public exchanges is not a security, though institutional sales are.  

Some investors said he was leading a group of banks to shut down crypto firms illegally. It’s often referred to as Operation Chokepoint 2.0. Crypto investors have come out to disclose the bullying by banks. 

As reported by Cryptopolitan, Custodia Bank CEO Caitlin says that Operation Chokepoint 2.0 is still alive. According to her, Federal banking agencies still have tools and personnel targeting the crypto industry. However, the Trump administration has laid the foundation for the fight against it. 

Unlike Gensler, Paul Atkins, Donald Trump’s pick, has been determined to create a framework for the crypto industry to flourish. With Atkins, the SEC stopped labeling every token as a security. And just this week, it passed general exchange-traded fund listing standards that, according to Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan, could “blow the market wide open.”

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