According to a person familiar with the matter quoted by Reuters, officials of Trump's transition team are considering including Dan Gallagher, the legal affairs, compliance and corporate affairs chief of retail broker Robinhood, in the candidate list of the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) submitted to Trump. Other candidates include former SEC member Paul Atkins and former SEC general counsel Robert Stebbins.

Dan Gallagher served as a Republican SEC commissioner from 2011 to 2015. Two insiders said that Gallagher, who is popular among cryptocurrency executives, is currently the leader, but discussions are still ongoing.

Another candidate under consideration for the position of SEC Chairman is Paul Atkins, who served as an SEC commissioner during the Bush administration and is currently the CEO of consulting firm Patomak Global Partners. It is reported that Atkins once served in Trump's transition team in 2016, when he was also regarded as a competitor for the position of SEC chairman.

Robert Stebbins, partner of the law firm Willkie Farr&Gallagher, was also in the discussion of the SEC's candidate list. He served as the general counsel of the SEC during Trump's first term of office.

The two people said that the officials of Trump's transition team are preparing a list of candidates for each financial institution and will submit it to Trump. This process may take several weeks. It is too early to say who will eventually win these senior positions.

In addition, multiple insiders have revealed that many in the cryptocurrency industry see Hester Peirce, a Republican SEC commissioner who is passionate about cryptocurrency, as a strong candidate for SEC chairman, but she has stated that she has no intention of holding the position.

Gary Gensler, the current chairman of the SEC, was appointed as the chairman of the SEC by Joe Biden in 2021. His term of office will end in 2026. However, Trump said at the Bitcoin Conference held in July this year that he would dismiss Gensler on the first day of taking office.