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It's SEC Chairman Gary Gensler's final month in office. There is a new Securities and Exchange Commission on the horizon, which will likely be more favorable to cryptocurrencies.

Here's the thing: This doesn't mean that legacy actions (aka lawsuits) by the SEC disappear overnight. Unfortunately, it's not that simple. But what happens next is a loaded question now.

Matthew Frankel of Haynes Boone believes there is a possibility we will see some cases dropped as the regulator recalculates how it plans to handle cryptocurrencies.

Frankel said he was "taking a guess here, but I suspect many of them will be shot down to the point where they can land, right? I mean sometimes they can't actually be shot down, but to the extent they can be shot down, I think they probably will." Unless there's...basic fraud, which is what they're after.

Couple that with Frankel's belief that cryptocurrencies will continue to be a huge priority for the SEC, and there's potential for a very different dialogue on regulation by this time next year.

Doesn't mean there's a crypto-friendly regulator less Organization, Frankl was careful to explain.

“I don’t think it will be less, I think it will be smarter,” he told me. “We'll get some regulations, but it will be to clarify things rather than telling people, 'Hey, what you're doing is wrong, and by the way, there's no way you can do it right.' That's the big issue, isn't it? You have these big players there.” ... (Who) want to do it the right way, and the SEC is telling them, basically, there's no way to do it.

But if your heart is set on January 20 being the day everything changes, you may need to adjust your expectations. Frankel expects it will take some time, and we obviously need to see the new SEC chair confirmed before we can actually see changes.

Maybe this is the year cryptocurrencies learn patience.

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