The idea to blacklist former SEC regulators who have been openly hostile to the crypto industry was recently brought up by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.
Ryan Selkis Contemplates SEC Blacklist
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Coinbase’s Call to Arms To Blacklist SEC ‘Bad Actors’ Heeded by Winklevoss and Selkis
Cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase and Gemini said they will no longer work with any law firms that hire former regulators who were hostile to the crypto industry and Ryan Selkis former CEO of crypto research firm Messari, wants to help by creating a blacklist to track SEC “bad actors.”
“We’ve let all the law firms we work with know, that if they hire anyone who committed these bad deeds in the soon-to-be prior administration, we will no longer be a client of theirs,” Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong posted on X.
Armstrong was reacting to a hiring announcement by law firm Milbank LLP, which hired former SEC Director of Enforcement Gurbir Grewal. An October news story from Law.com reported that Grewal “unleashed the SEC’s 1,300-attorney enforcement team on a variety of crypto players, bringing more than 100 enforcement actions.”
The same story describes the former regulator as having a “hard line on crypto,” and states that he “tormented the industry.”
Gemini Co-founder Tyler Winklevoss responded to Armstrong indicating that his firm would be “doing the same,” before asking, “Who has a running list of all the bad actors at the SEC who perpetrated and participated in the unlawful war on crypto?”
Several names were suggested by Winklevoss’s X followers – Custodia Bank CEO Caitlin Long, Castle Island Ventures General Partner Nic Carter, WSPN CEO Austin Campbell, and Ryan Selkis – but it appears only Selkis has taken up the challenge thus far.
“I am happy to create this blacklist,” Selkis said. “Send me names and sins, and I’ll publish the blacklist this month to punish the lawless as best we can.”
Bitcoin.com reached out to Selkis and to Campbell’s business partner Olivia Chow to determine if such a list was being created, but neither had responded at the time of publication.
