If you’ve been reading Forward Guidance, you know the last few days in crypto land have been — to put it mildly — eventful.
Bitcoin reached a record high on the day Donald Trump took office. BTC recovered yesterday from a drop to reach $107,000. BTC was trading around $104,200 as of 1:30pm ET.
Although there were no executive orders pertaining to cryptocurrency, the news that Hester P. Peirce would be leading a SEC taskforce on crypto generated optimism.
Wormhole Foundation’s general counsel Cathy Yoon referred to it as Peirce. “a relief” This unit would be led by her.
“She is proactive, engaged and most importantly, rational when it comes to thoughtful regimes concerning digital assets,” Yoon said in a recent statement about SEC’s commissioner.
Peirce’s record of crypto-friendly behavior is evident and spans many years. She was the first to floated an “token safe harbor proposal” In 2020, to encourage developer innovation through temporary exemptions from the securities law registration requirements. The US spot Bitcoin ETFs, she said, should have received approval years before their January 2024 launch.
Peirce, in 2023 in a time marked by SEC litigation against crypto-companies, said that “litigation is not the most effective way to carry out regulations.”
Philip Moustakis, a partner at Seward & Kissel LLP and an ex-senior counsel in the SEC’s enforcement division, noted that while former SEC Chair Jay Clayton paired enforcement actions with informal guidance, that essentially stopped under Gary Gensler.
Moustakis said that the task force’s announcement is a sign of the potential return to informal guidance, and a possible more formal approach in the future.
“This is not to say the federal securities laws will not apply to crypto offerings or transactions under appropriate facts and circumstances,” He said. “Ideally, however, there will be more clarity with respect to when and how they apply, and they will be applied in a way that lets crypto [be] crypto.”
Arthur Jakoby is co-chairman of Herrick Feinstein LLP’s Securities Litigation and Enforcement Practice. He said he views the creation of a group as a positive development. “a sign that the SEC will review all current crypto-related enforcement actions and likely discontinue existing cases which the new leadership…views as ill-conceived or inconsistent with promoting the growth of the crypto industry in the United States.”
This meeting on Thursday may discuss some of these topics.
The SEC has made a move that could have a significant impact on the crypto ETFs filed in the near future.
Newer proposals include DOGE funds and Trump’s memecoin.
Many agree that the industry should not expect approvals to happen overnight. Matt Mena, 21Shares’ crypto research strategist, said that the SEC unit would do a lot to promote structured disclosure frameworks and practical registration pathways, as well as regulator-industry collaboration.
Then he said, “That’s what I added.” “could create a more transparent approval process, addressing key SEC concerns such as custody, investor protection and market integrity — just as was done for spot bitcoin ETFs.”
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