(Bloomberg) -- Digital assets flagged as unregistered securities by the US Securities and Exchange Commission are rallying after the agency’s Chair Gary Gensler, the industry’s bete noire, announced that he plans to step down.
Crypto supporter Donald Trump had vowed to fire Gensler, who now intends to exit in January on the day the president-elect is due to be inaugurated. Gensler is a trenchant critic of alleged non-compliance and risky practices in the digital-asset sector, which two years ago was disgraced by spectacular blowups.
XRP, a token linked to Ripple Labs Inc., jumped as much as 20% on Friday following Gensler’s statement a day earlier. Ripple has been embroiled in a prolonged legal spat with the SEC over the status of digital assets.
The ADA token linked to the Cardano blockchain rose as much as 12%, while a rally in Solana’s SOL took the coin past its pandemic-era record high from 2021. ADA and SOL, like XRP, were highlighted in SEC litigation.
While Bitcoin — the largest digital asset — is viewed as a commodity, the SEC under Gensler argues most other tokens are unregistered securities that should be subject to its oversight. The industry expects this kind of crackdown to peter out under a Trump administration as regulations are clarified.
XRP, ADA and SOL have all outperformed Bitcoin’s gain of about 47% since Trump’s election victory on Nov. 5.
Some market participants expect a growing focus on smaller tokens, rather than Bitcoin alone, as speculative fervor builds. “That would certainly be consistent with previous cycles,” said Nick Forster, founder of trading platform Derive.xyz, who cited demand for bullish options on SOL as an example.
Bitcoin is on the cusp of the landmark $100,000 level, a price skeptics doubted was achievable. The impetus from Trump’s win, as well as strong demand for Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, together stoked a 135% climb this year.
“I’d expect Bitcoin to take a breather to allow other coins to catch up,” said Hayden Hughes, head of crypto investments at family office Evergreen Growth.
Trump has vowed to create a supportive US crypto regulatory framework and set up a strategic Bitcoin stockpile. The president-elect used to be a crypto skeptic but pivoted after digital-asset firms spent heavily during election campaigning to promote their interests. He also has his own crypto projects.
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