The Senate Banking Committee has ruled out a vote to advance the renomination of Democrat and crypto-skeptic Securities and Exchange Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw to another term as Wall Street’s top official.

The move comes after an intense lobbying effort by the main players in the crypto industry to convince Senate Democrats to block President Biden’s renomination of Crenshaw to another five-year term.

The Senate Banking Committee — still controlled by Democrats until the next Congress begins in January — had planned to vote Wednesday morning to advance his nomination to the full Senate, but the markup was put on hold because of the limited time available before the end of session of Congress on Thursday. , according to a committee aide.

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Securities and Exchange Commission nominee Caroline Crenshaw speaks during a nomination hearing for the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee in Washington, DC on July 11, 2024. (Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The cancellation will effectively end Crenshaw’s tenure on the commission unless President-elect Donald Trump he chooses to renominate her when he takes office on January 20. However, it would be highly unlikely that the cryptocurrency-friendly president-elect would nominate someone seen as part of the Biden regulatory apparatus that unleashed a massive crackdown on the $3 trillion digital asset. industry: an industry that helped get him elected. Ironically, Trump, who must nominate two people from outside his own party to fill minority seats, put Crenshaw in during his first term as president.

Crenshaw could not be reached for comment, and an SEC spokesman declined to comment.

The effort to oust Crenshaw was further evidence of the crypto industry’s political influence. During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump actively courted crypto voters (about 50 million people) by touting his ability to take down the Biden-era regulatory stronghold. In return, he received millions from industry loyalists like the Winklevoss brothers, while industry-backed super PACs spent more than $130 million to pack Congress with pro-crypto candidates.

President-elect Donald Trump gestures at the Bitcoin 2024 event in Nashville, Tennessee on July 27, 2024. (Reuters/Kevin Wurm/File Photo/Reuters Photos)

This time, through social media posts, letters to senators and even a mobile advertising campaign, the industry’s message to politicians was clear; a vote for Crenshaw would come with political repercussions. The threat was taken seriously, prompting last week’s vote to be rescheduled for Wednesday morning after Senate Republicans blocked efforts by Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown to hold a special committee vote outside the floor on Crenshaw and Biden’s Financial Stability Oversight Council nominee Gordon Ito outside of normal Senate business hours.

Some Democrats are fuming about the political influence of big crypto. Amid attempts by crypto-friendly Republican senators like the committee’s ranking member Tim Scott to block the vote, Brown said: “This is why people hate Washington. Corporate special interests have made it disgusting smear campaign against Caroline Crenshaw, an Army reservist and public servant who has been nominated and confirmed by a Republican president and a Republican Senate.”

Brown, an Ohio Democrat who himself was a target of political spending by the crypto lobby because of his perceived anti-crypto stance, lost the seat he had held since 2007 to Republican challenger Bernie Moreno, who the industry supported by an amount of 40 million dollars.

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Speaker Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, speaks on Capitol Hill during a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing in Washington, DC on November 18, 2021. (JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images/Getty Images)

Crenshaw will likely serve out his term until the new Republican-controlled Senate confirms his replacement next year. It is unclear which nominees Trump will choose to fill the non-Republican seats on the committee, but congressional tradition allows the minority party to recommend nominees, although the president is not required to accept their suggestions.

Meanwhile, the crypto industry is wasting no time offering names to Trump’s transition team of pro-crypto Democrats they’d like to see fill the roles. One name being discussed, according to an industry source at one of the crypto advocacy groups who spoke on condition of anonymity, is Georgetown law professor Chris Brummer. A Democrat, Brummer’s name was floated as a possible SEC chair if Vice President Kamala Harris had won the White House.

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Brummer is an avid advocate of digital assets and blockchain and leads the annual Fintech Week in Washington, DC, which is attended by many industry participants. Another is Jai Messai, the chief legal officer of blockchain payments company Lightspark and a former partner at white-shoe law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell. TuongVy Le, CEO of cryptobank Anchorage Digital, is also an industry favorite. Prior to working in crypto law, Le served at the SEC for six years as Senior Counsel in the Division of Enforcement and later as Senior Counsel in the Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs. Carla Carriveau, SEC alumna and special advisor to the Research and Innovation Division of the New York Department of Financial Services, is also one of the first.