If re-elected, Donald Trump probably could strip SEC Chair Gary Gensler of his place at the head of the agency.

Why it matters: The former president promised to "fire" the American blockchain industry's No. 1 enemy last month in front of a cheering crowd at this year's biggest Bitcoin conference, but there's actually no precedent for a president firing a leader of the agency.

Reality check: By custom, SEC chairs normally resign if there's a change in the White House anyway, Andrew Vollmer, of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and an alumnus of the SEC's legal team, told Axios.

Let's say, however, the chair preferred to stick around through the end of his term in 2026. As others have reported, it might take a lot of effort to actually remove Gensler early from the agency's five-member commission.

• But when you look at the law, case law and one obscure bit of federal policy together, all signs point to SEC chairs leading the agency only as long as the president wants them there.

Zoom in: The "consensus view" among legal scholars, according to a blog post by UCLA Law professor Stephen Bainbridge, is that Trump, if re-elected, "likely could remove Gensler from his post as chairman," and designate one of the other four commissions to lead the agency.

• In response to a query from Axios, Bainbridge wrote another blog post in which he put his confidence on this at 95%.

The authority to do so is based, Bainbridge's posts explain, on an obscure policy from 1950 (which was written by the White House at the direction of Congress). That and case law support the view that the president can switch chairs at will.

• Vollmer goes a step further. He believes prior Supreme Court rulings make it explicit that the president is presumed to have the authority to remove his appointees under the faithful execution clause of the Constitution.
• But Vollmer also acknowledges that removals of appointees by the president are something of an open question in U.S. law, which Bainbridge breaks down in his second post.
• Court challenges could ensue, but what else is new?

Context: The Securities and Exchange Commission is an independent federal agency, so it's meant to be a bit removed from politics.

• Its five commissioners, including the chair, are nominated by the president with terms that last five years. The president also designates the chair, the agency's top executive.
• President Biden appointed Gensler in 2021.

💭 Our thought bubble: Trump wouldn't need to kick Gensler off the Commission for his Bitcoin base to view it as a promise kept, anyway.

• Particularly if he appointed a friendlier commissioner to take over leadership.

The bottom line: The roles of commissioner and chair of the commission are two different things.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) showed up last night on a virtual rally for the cryptocurrency industry to back Vice President Kamala Harris, sponsored by the group, Crypto4Harris.

Why it matters: The industry is waiting to hear anything at all from Harris, while Trump has made his support clear.

Zoom in: Schumer spoke at the town hall after being introduced by Shark Tank star Mark Cuban.

• "The rest of us need crypto, and the Republicans couldn't care less. They just want to see the Bitcoin maxis get richer," the billionaire told listeners.
• The main purpose of the event was to urge viewers to donate to the Harris campaign right there on the call, so she would see it as one block of backing.

Schumer on the call championed an unreleased bill from Senate Democrats to expand the federal government's ability to oversee digital assets.

• "My goal is to get something passed out of the Senate and into law by the end of the year," he said.
• Among various other elected Democrats who appeared, the writer of the legislation Schumer was talking about, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), also appeared.
• Her bill was expected to see a committee vote before recess, but it didn't happen. "Republicans just played game with us," she said. "They should not get a pass on that."

By the numbers: An organizer tells Axios that there were north of 1,000 listeners on the call, which had a format similar to previous online rallies.

What we're watching: "We are in early talks with the Harris campaign now," Jonathan Padilla, one of the call's organizers and a blockchain entrepreneur told listeners as the call began.

Super PACs organized to defend the cryptocurrency industry announced their entrance into three Senate races on Tuesday, and one of them is super close: Sen. Sherrod Brown's (D-Ohio) bid for re-election.

Why it matters: Brown is the chair of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, which has oversight of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

• The senator has called for a crackdown on cryptocurrency's utility for bad actors and its financial riskiness, while defending the current regulatory scheme.
• He has, at times, made noises about collaboration however, such as on stablecoins (the technology's strongest use case to date) and clarifying regulatory authority.

By the numbers: Defend American Jobs announced today that it is setting aside about $12 million to spend on electing Bernie Moreno, Brown's challenger this year.

• Moreno was endorsed by former president Donald Trump over his primary challenger.
• Ohio's Senate race has already become the most expensive in the nation.

In addition, the organization's sister PAC, Protect Progress, announced $3 million to support two Democrats running for the Senate: Rep. Ruben Gallego, in Arizona, and Rep. Elisa Slotkin, who just won the Democratic Senate primary in Michigan.

• (Slotkin made a pre-recorded appearance on last night's Crypto4Harris call.)

Zoom out: These two PACs are affiliated with Fairshake, an umbrella organization with $200 million in funding to support electoral efforts.

• Earlier this month, it announced 18 endorsements in House races, nine for Republicans and nine for Democrats.

🇳🇬 The Binance exec held in Nigeria is deteriorating rapidly. (DL News)

🏹 The corpse of Three Arrows Capital is suing the corpse of Terraform Labs. (Axios Pro)

🏘️ Eric Trump has fallen in love with blockchain technology. (New York Post)

🔭 Haun Ventures has put $55 million into a blockchain monitoring project. (Axios Pro)

🧀 The Wisconsin state employee retirement system upped its Bitcoin ETF exposure, but it also dumped Grayscale. (The Block)

🏝️ In 2017, lots of the crypto rich moved to Puerto Rico. It's not going amazingly. (New York Times)