J. Christopher Giancarlo, affectionately known as “Crypto Dad,” dismissed speculation that he is being considered to replace Gary Gensler as head of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

On Thursday,  the former Chair of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) took to X to deny reports he was seeking the agency’s top job.

“I’ve made clear that I’ve already cleaned up an earlier Gary Gensler[‘s] mess,” he said. “[I] Don’t want to have to do it again.”

He also pushed back against rumors he was seeking “some crypto role” within the U.S. Treasury Department, claiming they were “also wrong.”

The buzz around Giancarlo’s potential return to a regulatory role comes amidst speculation of a shake-up at the SEC following Donald Trump’s re-election, with Gary Gensler’s position as chairman hanging in the balance.

Giancarlo served as a commissioner at the CFTC from June 2014 to April 2019, stepping into the role shortly after Gensler’s departure as CFTC chair.

He earned the nickname “Crypto Dad” as he became a top figure in the crypto community by advocating for crypto innovation during his tenure. 

After stepping down from his role, he co-founded the Digital Dollar Project in January 2020, which seeks to promote discussions on the future of “digital monetary innovations.”

Giancarlo has maintained that central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are not the only path forward, noting that “crypto, CBDCs, stablecoins, and more” is the global future.

President-elect Donald Trump, whose return to the Whitehouse in January marks a significant comeback for the Republican party, has vowed to quash any future CBDC policy.

The crypto community is bracing for the possibility of Gensler’s departure, as Trump has also promised to replace the current SEC chair, whose term runs until 2026. 

Giancarlo is not the only name being floated; other pro-crypto candidates include SEC Commissioners Hester Peirce and Mark Uyeda, former Binance.US CEO Brian Brooks, and others.

Gensler, a contentious figure in the crypto space, hinted at his possible departure during a speech at the 56th Annual Institute on Securities Regulation on Thursday. 

At the end of the speech, he stated, “It’s been a great honor to serve with them, doing the people’s work, and ensuring that our capital markets remain the best in the world,” referring to his SEC colleagues. 

The pressure on Gensler is at an all-time high this week as 18 states, along with the DeFi Education Fund, filed a lawsuit accusing the SEC of overreaching its authority on crypto regulations.

Filed Thursday, the suit alleges that under Gensler’s leadership, the SEC deliberately bypassed standard procedures and withheld new crypto rules to pursue a “regulatory land grab.”

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair

Andreessen Horowitz’s (a16z) crypto arm sees former President Donald Trump’s re-election as a catalyst for a new era in crypto regulation, urging projects to embrace decentralized solutions and build confidently in the U.S. 

The venture capital firm, which has invested heavily in crypto and web3 startups, sees Trump’s pro-crypto stance as a way forward, according to a blog post on Monday.

The firm’s crypto legal and policy experts—Miles Jennings, Michele Korver, and Brian Quintenz—outlined how the new political climate could pave the way for regulatory clarity.

With the election now decided, “we believe this is an incredible opportunity to build on the bipartisan progress from the last Congress,” they wrote.

The experts’ core message to crypto founders is to leverage the new administration’s openness towards digital assets. “Where there is trust, there is regulation,” the experts reminded builders, urging them to eliminate centralized dependencies to stay compliant.

The trio notes now is the time for projects that have held back on using tokens due to regulatory concerns. With Trump’s pro-crypto approach, founders should feel confident in using tokens as “legitimate and lawful tools,” according to experts.

“Today’s all-time high, driven by a Trump election win, signals that we are in the midst of a potential paradigm shift into the next phase of growth for crypto,” OKX chief legal officer Mauricio Beugelmans told Decrypt.

Much of the optimism stems from Trump’s campaign promises to ease restrictions on crypto and replace Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, whose strict enforcement approach has been a thorn in crypto’s side.

“We hope forward-looking regulation that protects the industry and users and cultivates crypto innovation in America will become a bipartisan topic in the future,” Beugelmans added.

Trump’s re-election has sparked enthusiasm in the markets, with Bitcoin reaching new all-time highs well above $80,000.

“The confirmation of Republicans winning the House could provide an additional boost to the risk rally, but we may see some profit-taking in the coming weeks or months as actual policies are tested,” Aurelie Barthere, Nansen’s principal research analyst, told Decrypt.

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair

When trying to regain access to your Kraken account, you may be asked to jump on a video call with a support agent to prove you are actually who you say you are.

Last month, the centralized exchange said it caught someone wearing a Halloween-style rubber mask attempting to fool the worker on the other side of the call—but it didn’t work.

The attacker had raised a number of red flags during the first round of checks, such as failing to name the assets that the account held. These flags caused the agent working the case to require a video call to grant access to the account. During the call, the Kraken worker asked some more questions and checked the person’s ID.

The attacker failed this stage—in dramatic fashion.

“Our agent was like: This is absolutely ridiculous. This is a rubber mask the guy’s wearing,” Kraken Chief Security Officer Nick Percoco told Decrypt.

The mask didn’t even look like the person the attacker was claiming to be, Percoco said. The victim was a Caucasian male in his early 50s, so it appeared to Percoco that the attacker simply grabbed a mask that vaguely fit the description.

And this isn’t the first time someone has worn a disguise in an attempt to fool Kraken.

“[We] see things, from time to time, where people put on a fake mustache,” he told Decrypt. “They show [ID] and it looks close because they wear the same style glasses, have a mustache, and have blonde hair. We see that from time to time. They never pass.” 

“But this is the first time,” he added, “that someone has gone out to the costume store to get a mask.”

To make matters worse, the attacker didn’t even have a believable ID. It was “clearly” Photoshopped and printed onto card stock, Percoco explained, albeit with the correct information on it.

While this wasn’t a sophisticated attack, it highlights that even sloppy scammers can potentially gain access to the private information of everyday people. Even with such an unpolished attempt, Percoco believes, attackers could see success.

“I think it must [work],” he told Decrypt. “I think people wearing disguises, people who breach another place and get a copy of your government ID, and then print it out on glossy paper, holding that up… for some exchanges, that probably works.”

He claimed that some exchanges do not have the same level of attention to detail that Kraken demands from its team. Percoco specifically points to companies that outsource their support, claiming that this is more likely to lead to mistakes. 

If he’s correct, then this means that those using centralized exchanges shouldn’t always rely on the company to fend off bad actors. To protect themselves, Percoco says, users should deploy two-factor authentication “everywhere”—from your email to well beyond—to prevent bad actors getting any personal information at all costs.

Even with such protection methods employed, a user can still fall for phishing scams. For the top level of security, he recommends using FIDO2 and passkeys, which are hardware keys that can turn your phone or laptop into your password for an account.

“Passkeys are cryptographically bound to the sites and the applications you’re using them with,” he said, “so you can’t be duped into thinking you’re logging into Kraken.”

Edited by Andrew Hayward