Strategy’s Michael Saylor has had a busy start to the year, between his company buying $2 billion more bitcoin — meaning Strategy now holds nearly 500,000 BTC — and meeting with the SEC’s shiny new Crypto Task Force.
David will go into more detail about the first, but I’m going to concentrate on the second today.
Yesterday, my colleague Eleanor Terrett broke the news that Saylor had swung by the SEC’s offices to chitchat with Commissioner Hester Peirce’s new task force, and we — thanks to Saylor himself — now have an idea of what they focused on.
This framework defines digital asset categories and establishes responsibilities that emphasize efficiency and innovation. This document outlines the benefits that can be gained by the US from embracing crypto-currencies and ensuring fair regulation.
Some of the talking points — like a strategic bitcoin reserve and industry-led compliance — are topics we’ve talked about before and shouldn’t be a huge surprise.
Saylor’s tactic is interesting: not only does he want to ensure that Strategy builds up its bitcoin bank (which has, some would argue, helped to maintain the bitcoin price despite other meltdowns in the market), he also wants to bring ideas about regulating the crypto market directly to SEC.
I caught up with Anthony Tu-Sekine, head of Seward & Kissel’s blockchain and crypto group yesterday and he was most interested by Saylor’s taxonomy section.
The most popular way to get the best deal “concrete” Tu-Sekine stated that the lawyers were looking for a complete framework proposal. Even with an SEC that is more accommodating, the legacy of the previous administration remains. Dropped investigations or cases against Coinbase, Robinhood and others will not be enough to remove it.
Take Kaito, for instance: one of the remaining questions from the token-drop is whether it’s illegal for a central company to engage in this type of activity. Tu-Sekine explains that the problem is still not clear. Both cases could be argued, said Tu-Sekine.
Tu-Sekine informed me that he looked at Saylor’s offer from the perspective of a “practical perspective.”
“Policy goals are great, but they’re meaningless until somebody actually tries to write some sort of rules and a complete proposal.”
Definitions could be the beginning of a more clear and actionable industry. Personally, I think we can see more of this in Saylor’s Compliance section.
You may find some silver linings in the current market situation.
Saylor has started the conversation we have been wanting to start for many years. The SEC docket shows that Saylor is not alone. Robinhood, the Crypto Council for Innovation and Coinbase representatives have all met with SEC.
It’s time to start seeing some progress.
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