One of my brother’s favorite books as a child was Judith Viorst’s classic, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. I’m reminded of the book’s recitations of injustices visited on Alexander — ranging from gum in his hair to lima beans at dinner — whenever I hear a chain of events where nothing is going the main character’s way. Well, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Gary Gensler, just had an Alexander sort of month.

The last half of the month, in particular, was a parade of horribles for Gensler, full of stinging defeats on crypto policy — where Gensler’s aggressive crackdown has operated as a de facto ban on the industry. But Gensler not only found himself alone on a shrinking island with crypto: Bipartisan criticism of Gensler’s agenda is mounting, and rightly so.

Gensler’s crypto-policy losses perhaps signal a sea change in the Biden administration’s view of the industry. But even if they don’t amount to vote of no confidence in Gensler, it’s clear that the Democratic Party is not united behind Gensler’s regulatory worldview.

Take, for example, Congress’s vote on a resolution of disapproval of the SEC’s Staff Accounting Bulletin 121. SAB 121, which provided guidance to crypto custodians requiring them to list custodied assets on their own balance sheets, was issued in March 2022. Over a year later, in October 2023, the Government Accountability Office determined that the guidance should have been submitted to Congress under the Congressional Review Act (CRA).

When the House considered a CRA resolution of disapproval on May 8, the White House issued a statement supporting SAB 121 and promising to veto the resolution. The House then passed the resolution with limited bipartisan support. At this point, Gensler may not have been complaining about his missing cereal-box prize, but his month was about to get worse.

A week later, in the face of the president’s threatened veto, the Senate passed the disapproval resolution with strong bipartisan support (60–38), including from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Perhaps even more consequentially, Gensler’s entire crypto regulatory philosophy — that the crypto industry doesn’t need new rules because it doesn’t play by existing rules — was dealt a serious blow on May 22 when the House passed the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT 21), a bill that would divide regulatory authority between the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The vote was 279–136, with 71 Democrats voting in favor of the bill, including former speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and current Democratic whip Katherine Clark.

Gensler’s opposition to FIT 21 was no secret. In an unusual move, he released a statement criticizing the bill in detail and arguing against its passage. The White House, however, undercut Gensler’s core premise that new legislation is unnecessary by releasing a statement opposing FIT 21, but expressing eagerness for “continued collaboration with Congress on developing legislation for digital assets.” That sounds a lot like getting soap in your eyes.

On May 23, the SEC approved exchange rule changes paving the way for spot Ether ETFs. This happened fewer than six months after Gensler’s SEC was dragged kicking and screaming to approve spot Bitcoin ETFs. While the SEC has not yet approved the ETFs themselves, it’s an indication that the SEC may finally be willing to concede that Ether itself is not a security, a position that Gensler has gone out of his way to avoid taking (and the agency has separately been investigating). Feels like not getting the window seat.

Five days later, the SEC was ordered to pay $1.8 million in legal fees in its case against crypto project Debt Box. The court levied the sanction on the agency for misconduct in the case, including false statements and misrepresentation made by the SEC’s attorneys. Definitely visiting the dentist and finding a cavity.

The month may have ended on a high note for Gensler, with the president following through on his veto threat of the SAB 121 disapproval resolution. But the White House reiterated its desire to “work with the Congress” on a crypto regulatory framework, contrary to Gensler’s wishes. A bit like forgetting to pack dessert.

But, as bad as Gensler’s month has been in crypto policy, he has also suffered in other areas. He announced on May 16 that, for all intents and purposes, it’s back to the drawing board on both his predictive data analytics and investment-adviser custody rules. And a number of his other ambitious proposals — including several related to equity market structure — remain uncompleted, leaving them vulnerable to disapproval under the CRA by the next Congress when, and if, they are finalized.

Alexander’s bad day was the result of both his own actions and bad luck. But Gensler’s is solely self-manufactured. He has played fast and loose with the SEC’s authority over crypto assets and has sought to expand the agency’s authority in other areas without regard for the agency’s statutory mandate. As SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce has noted, the agency’s approach under Gensler is the product of “stilted communication, half-hearted engagement, quick-draw of enforcement guns, and limited transparency.”

Gensler has received signals from Congress and the public that his approach is not the right one. Rather than moving to Australia — which Alexander’s mother points out is no panacea to bad days anyway — Gensler can avoid another terrible, horrible, no good, very bad month by choosing to color within the lines that Congress has provided to the SEC.