Caroline Crenshaw, the lone Democratic commissioner at the Securities and Exchange Commission, is offering dissenting views at the regulatory agency reshaped by President Trump.
The nation’s top securities regulator is backing down on crypto enforcement and climate disclosure initiatives as the agency is expected to take a more friendly and receptive approach to companies.
But not everyone at the Securities and Exchange Commission is on board with this change in priorities under the Trump administration.
When the S.E.C. announced last month that it would not be policing the sale of memecoins, Caroline Crenshaw, the lone Democratic commissioner at the S.E.C., quickly weighed in with a sharply different opinion about these novelty digital assets of often dubious value.
“This guidance is not a reasoned interpretation of existing law,” Ms. Crenshaw wrote in a statement. “It raises more questions than it answers.”
Ms. Crenshaw, who has worked at the S.E.C. for more than a decade, suddenly has become the agency’s loyal opposition. It’s a role that may not have an impact on the S.E.C.’s immediate rulings, but can help shape securities regulation over the long term.
Ms. Crenshaw’s dissenting view on the agency’s authority to regulate memecoins is the first of several contrary policy positions she has taken in the six weeks since Mark Uyeda, a Republican, became the acting chair of the S.E.C. She has taken issue with Mr. Uyeda’s overall hands-off approach to regulating crypto and his move to kill a newly enacted climate change disclosure rule for public companies.