#320—The two words that defines Gary Gensler’s legacy

Also, Greg Kidd speaks at inauguration event

Jan 27, 2025

Welcome to Yaka Stuff, our weekly newsletter that covers news, industry perspectives, and updates from the Hard Yaka ecosystem. Check out our last report here.

This week:

Quote of the week: Rep. Bryan Steil on stablecoin legislation
Two words: “Arbitrary and capricious”
Greg Kidd interviewed by Ray Fuentes at Inauguration Event
This week in new leadership
This week in Trumpland
This week in stablecoins
This week in bad actors
What people are reading: Pardoning an Online Drug Kingpin
Stuff happens

1. Quote of the week: Rep. Bryan Steil on stablecoin legislation

"I've been focused, out of the gates, on what I think are possibly the two most important pieces, which I think are market structure and stablecoin legislation," Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Wisc.), chair of the House subcommittee focused on cryptocurrency, told Axios.

Relevant:

2. Two words “Arbitrary and capricious”

These are the two words that have come to define Gary Gensler’s tenure at the SEC, according to Axios.

And these two words were reiterated again in a recent court decision surrounding Coinbase.

Here’s Axios:

The latest: The country's largest crypto company, Coinbase, had petitioned for updated rules, and a federal appeals court last week ordered the agency to revisit its decision to refuse to provide them.

Though the court noted that, in general, it's expected to defer to agencies like the SEC — in this case it said the regulator's reasoning was so bad that it was forced to demand the agency take a second look.

It called the SEC's decision "insufficiently reasoned, and thus arbitrary and capricious."

Context: "Abitrary and capricious" is a legal standard from the Administrative Procedure Act. It's a standard by which courts are meant to judge the reasonableness and fairness of agency decisions.
Between the lines: Gensler's strategy with regard to digital assets was to undermine the entire industry in the U.S. by going after its most important companies (rather than prioritizing its worst actors, which were typically much smaller operations).

Relevant:

3. Greg Kidd interviewed by Ray Fuentes at Inauguration Event

4. This week in new leadership

5. This week in Trumpland

6. This week in stablecoins

7. This week in bad actors

8. What people are reading: How Trump Was Persuaded to Pardon an Online Drug Kingpin

Here’s the NYTimes:

In December 2023, Angela McArdle, the chair of the Libertarian Party, flew to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Donald J. Trump.
Mr. Trump wanted to know how to win over libertarian voters, a constituency he thought could help him reclaim the presidency, Ms. McArdle said in an interview. She had an answer: Free Ross Ulbricht, a Bitcoin pioneer who was sentenced to life in prison in 2015 for creating Silk Road, the world’s largest online drug marketplace. Mr. Ulbricht was regarded as a libertarian hero for building an illegal market outside the government’s reach.
“I love freeing people,” Mr. Trump said, according to Ms. McArdle. Five months later, she hosted him at the Libertarian Party’s national convention, where he announced onstage that, if elected to the presidency, he would release Mr. Ulbricht.
On Tuesday, the day after his inauguration, Mr. Trump made good on that promise.

USBC

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