Senate Banking Committee cancels confirmation vote for SEC’s Caroline Crenshaw

In the meantime, Trump will name either Commissioner Hester Peirce or Mark Uyeda as acting chair

December 17, 2024 04:00 pm

Mark Van Scyoc/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

This is a segment from the Forward Guidance newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe.

The Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday decided to abandon its effort to re-confirm SEC Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw.

The news, somewhat ironically, was leaked while Sen. Tim Scott, the Republican gunning to lead the Banking Committee next session, was wrapping up his remarks at the Blockchain Association event.

Crenshaw’s confirmation vote, initially scheduled for last week, was postponed after Senate Republicans successfully blocked it.

Newsletter

Subscribe to The Breakdown

“Having fought ‘train Crenshaw’ for the last several months… to have a resounding victory of not having her go forward last week, I was so excited,” Scott said before learning the vote had been canceled.

The vote was rescheduled for this week, but the committee “just didn’t have the votes,” a person familiar with the matter said. A spokesperson from the committee disagreed, saying they “had the support,” but “ran out of time.”

A representative for Crenshaw did not immediately return a request for comment.

Now that Crenshaw is out and Chair Gary Gensler and Commissioner Jaime Lizárraga, both Democrats, will be resigning in the new year, President-elect Donald Trump now has three seats to fill.

In the meantime, Trump will name either Commissioner Hester Peirce or Mark Uyeda as acting chair while his pick for the top job, Republican Paul Atkins, is confirmed.

So the commission is going to be small — at least for the first few weeks of 2025. This will not be the first time the SEC has operated with only two commissioners, and precedent largely supports allowing these two commissioners to vote on matters and conduct business as usual.

The more provocative these actions are, though, the greater the likelihood of a legal battle. When it comes to making the agenda, the chair, or acting chair, holds all the power.

Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

The Breakdown: Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily.
0xResearch: Alpha in your inbox. Think like an analyst.

Tags

Newsletter

The Breakdown

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Digital Asset Summit 2026

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 24 - 26, 2026

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

buy tickets learn more

recent research

Research

ERC 8004: Introducing Trust for AI Agents

ERC 8004 introduces a new trust layer for AI agents by standardizing onchain identity, reputation, and validation. As agents begin handling capital and coordinating autonomously, trust becomes the key constraint to broader adoption. The rollout mirrors the early x402 narrative, where adoption lagged the initial launch until major integrations and a viral use case pulled attention into the ecosystem. If ERC 8004 follows a similar path, downstream infrastructure tied to the standard could see outsized benefit as the narrative gains traction. The primary beneficiaries are likely to be agent frameworks and launchpads at the distribution layer, agent to agent coordination platforms that enable delegation and payments, and validation providers that offer stronger security and execution guarantees.

by Kunal Doshi