We’re Not Enemies Anymore, Commissioner Hester Peirce Says

A new era of cryptocurrency regulations is about to be unveiled as a commissioner of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) confirmed that the agency would move in the opposite direction of its strict oversight policies.

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce said that the regulatory body under the Trump administration would take a more pro-crypto approach to digital assets, a shift from the previous enforcement actions taken against cryptocurrency players.

More Structured Policies

In a Bloomberg Crypto TV interview, Peirce said that the regulatory body would be stepping away from an enforcement-centered approach to oversee the country’s cryptocurrency sector, adding that the focus now of the agency is to establish clear guidelines governing crypto tokens.

Source: Bloomberg Crypto TV

The SEC commissioner admitted in a statement that previously, the state regulator has been dependent on enforcement actions to regulate the digital assets industry, noting that the approach veered away from the policy making function of the SEC.

She noted that the SEC under Trump’s leadership would aim to craft a more structured crypto regulation framework than taking enforcement actions.

“During the past several years, enforcement cases have been used as a way to make regulatory policy; that is very atypical. We’re trying to get back to a path where we’re really using our other tools to make policy,” Peirce said.

No More Crypto War?

Peirce confirmed that the government has ended its so-called war against cryptocurrencies.

“We have been using enforcement cases to set regulatory policy. We’re trying to shift from that so we actually set policy and then we bring enforcement cases as needed,” the SEC Commissioner said in an interview.

She said that the SEC has an ongoing review on which state agency has jurisdiction over cryptos and identifies the regulatory gaps that the US Congress should address.

For several years, there has been an ongoing debate on whether regulating cryptocurrencies is a function of the SEC or should it be the responsibility of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC):

“We’re working on looking at our jurisdiction that we currently have and saying what falls inside that jurisdiction and what falls outside that jurisdiction, then we can point out to Congress where we think there are gaps where maybe something is not covered by our jurisdiction,” she explained.

Crypto Task Force

Reports said that Peirce would be leading a crypto task force under the stewardship of the SEC, adding that the task force’s output would be a clear regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies.

According to analysts, the SEC task force will evaluate which cryptocurrencies should be classified as securities and assess the agency’s jurisdiction in the digital assets market.

Earlier, US President Donald Trump inked an executive order that will establish an advisory panel on cryptocurrency regulations. Trump is also considering the creation of a national crypto stockpile.

Peirce is a known supporter of the Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and has been against enforcement actions taken by the SEC against digital asset firms.

Featured image from SOPA Images, chart from TradingView