Traders on Kashi are leaning toward Brian Brooks, the former CEO of Binance US and ex-legal boss of Coinbase, as the leading candidate for the SEC Chair position in Donald Trump’s second term.
Brooks currently leads the poll with a 40% chance. Dan Gallagher, Robinhood’s chief legal officer, is a close second with a 30% probability.
Brooks, who served as Acting Director of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency during Trump’s first term, is being considered for “various financial agency roles besides the CFTC,” according to a source who spoke with FOX Business journalist Eleanor Terrett. These agencies could be the SEC, the OCC, the Fed, and others.
“Whoever [Donald Trump] appoints as SEC chair won’t be starting from scratch. In his last administration President Trump built the infrastructure for two ATH cycles,” Brooks said in a statement responding to support from the crypto community.
He also tweeted four proposals for how crypto should be regulated after a potential change in the SEC chairmanship, but he did not directly comment on ongoing speculation.
Gallagher initially held the lead, with odds hitting a high of above 70% last week, but Brooks started gaining ground earlier this week.
Like Brooks, Gallagher was reportedly shortlisted by Trump’s transition team to succeed SEC Chair Gary Gensler. He is also a known pro-crypto figure.
Other candidates are Robert Stebbins, former General Counsel for the SEC, and Hester Pierce and Mark Uyeda, the current SEC commissioners.
Uyeda was the early frontrunner to succeed Gensler. Jake Chervinsky, Chief Legal Officer at Variant, however, believes Trump would choose his own candidate rather than select from the existing commissioners.
Stebbins’ candidacy may not be universally embraced. Critics, including Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, worry that his past involvement in regulatory actions—particularly those related to Ethereum—could lead to a continuation of the “regulation by enforcement” approach that many in the crypto industry find problematic.