Cuban Wants to Run SEC in Harris Administration

Article by Sander Lutz

Apparently it’s not a joke. Mark Cuban reiterated his interest in leading the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Thursday, confirming to Decrypt that he really is open to chairing the financial regulator if Kamala Harris is elected president in November. 

Cuban, an outspoken supporter of both the crypto industry and Harris’ presidential campaign, has long been critical of current SEC chair Gary Gensler’s aggressive series of enforcement actions against a litany of American crypto firms. 

That line has often been a tough one to walk, though, given that Harris, as Vice President, is a key member of President Joe Biden’s crypto-hostile administration. 

Since the earliest days of Harris’ upstart presidential campaign, Cuban has emerged as one of the few crypto industry advocates with close connections to the Vice President’s inner circle. He has apparently used that position to attempt to push the Democratic nominee away from her predecessor’s skeptical stance on digital assets, and towards a more friendly one.

In late July, less than two days after Harris launched her bid for president, Cuban told Decrypt that her camp reached out to him with “multiple questions” about crypto, a sign the billionaire entrepreneur took as encouraging. 

And in the last few days, Harris has made her first-ever recorded comments on the digital assets industry, both positive. On Sunday, she told a room of high-profile donors in Manhattan that she “will encourage innovative technologies like AI and digital assets while protecting our consumers and investors,” according to a Bloomberg report.

On Wednesday, in a speech before The Economic Club of Pittsburgh, she pledged that America would “remain dominant in AI and quantum computing, blockchain and other emerging technologies” under her leadership.

Cuban attended the latter event, and after it, told a Fox News reporter that if he had any interest in joining a Harris Administration, it would be to replace Gary Gensler.