Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler will step down from his position this January ahead of President-elect Donald Trump's reentry into the White House. Gensler's departure comes as bitcoin (BTC-USD) nears $100,000, with crypto investors hoping the new SEC chair will be more favorable to crypto. Oppenheimer executive director and senior analyst Owen Lau joins Catalysts Hosts Seana Smith and Madison Mills to discuss his crypto outlook and who could fill the SEC chair opening.

"This is big news, but it's also widely expected news coming out from Gary Gensler. And I think the No. 1 thing is the expectation [that] the new SEC chair will more likely embrace crypto," Lau says, nodding to President-elect Donald Trump's pro-crypto attitude.

He adds, "We are going to have a SEC chair that will embrace crypto and what that means is it will dramatically reduce enforcement actions against this industry. It is huge because it represents a dramatic regime shift from violation of securities laws to crypto capital in the world."

As far as who could replace Gensler, Lau notes he views Teresa Goody Guillén as "a dark horse," saying, "I think she is more favored by the crypto community ... My sense is this candidate is favored by the crypto industry and she's a dark horse."

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This post was written by Naomi Buchanan.