• Gary Gensler, the head of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), recently declared that all cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin are securities.
• Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty criticized Gensler for forming an opinion on the case before voting.
• Attorney John Deaton also supported Alderoty’s call to have Gensler recuse himself from voting in SEC v. Antoniu.

Gary Gensler’s Proclamation

Gary Gensler is a US public servant and financial regulator who now serves as the Head of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). With his recent regulatory measures, Gensler has often come under fire. Senator Tom Emmer of Minnesota has criticized him for his regulatory flaws. He recently declared that all cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin are securities.

Alderoty Criticizes Gensler

Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer, Stuart Alderoty, described how Chair Gensler had once more declared that all cryptocurrencies, with the exception of Bitcoin (BTC), are unregistered securities in a tweet. He argued that this meant that Gensler must recuse himself from voting in any enforcement cases involving cryptocurrency securities because he had already formed an opinion on the result for SEC v. Antoniu (8th Cir. 1989).

Deaton Supports Alderoty

Attorney John Deaton, who represents thousands of XRP holders as an amicus curiae in the SEC litigation against Ripple, backed up Alderoty’s call to have Gary Gensler recuse himself from voting in SEC v. Antoniu due to prejudgment on the matter. Deaton stated that this was necessary to ensure fairness and impartiality during proceedings involving crypto tokens being classified as securities by the SEC Chairman himself.

Antoniu v SEC

The question at stake in SEC v Antoniu was whether or not Commissioner’s ongoing involvement in disbarment proceedings was an infraction of due process given his words regarding permanent bans from employment within the securities industry while proceedings were ongoing showed he had already made up his mind about the case before it even reached court..

Conclusion

Both Alderoty and Deaton believe it is essential for Gary Gensler to step down from any cases involving token security classification as they feel this would ensure fairness throughout proceedings as well as prevent further bias towards such decisions by having a different member vote on them instead of one already having formed an opinion on it beforehand