SEC Commissioner wins second term – has plans for crypto under Covid

“Crypto mom” landed five more years as SEC commissioner and will keep pushing for sensible crypto regulations

SEC Commissioner, Hester Peirce, has been sworn in to her second term and in a recent interview, she shared her future plans for regulations on token sales in the US and the current crypto industry under Covid-19.

After being appointed at the beginning of 2018, Peirce has always welcomed the opinion of non-policy makers and industry professionals. These ideas provide her with perspectives that wouldn’t come from working solely with securities lawyers.

Peirce said in the interview:

“I really believe that as regulators, we need to be drawing on the wisdom of people outside of the regulatory community. And that’s, again, part of what I really like about this area, which is that people are coming and looking at our securities laws from a totally fresh and new perspective”.

This could further drive crypto policies to create a much more hospitable environment between policymakers and investors.

Furthermore, she also understands the sentiment of many crypto investors upon token sales and their classifications.

She said:

“I think we’ve made it really hard for people to do legally compliant token offerings in the US”.

The SEC, Peirce and Telegram

Peirce is an advocate of “safe harboring” crypto and was named “Crypto Mom,” during her last term in an unofficial sense. On July 21, Peirce spoke against the SEC’s decision to pursue Telegram after the SEC had won the trial against the application.

Peirce expressed her sentiment on the current state of SEC regulations:

“Enforcement actions can be instructive to people other than the wrongdoer, but are not an appropriate mechanism to create new law. Our regulatory integrity demands that enforcement actions be premised on a violation of a clearly articulated statute or rule”.

How the crypto industry handles Covid-19

According to a survey by KPMG, a majority of executives have confirmed that the pandemic has stunted the growth of blockchain and crypto businesses. 2020 has switched industry priorities from cost-cutting to survival.

The SEC had taken initiative to make it easier for businesses to crowdfund without needing documents that are limited during the pandemic. The result of this campaign has yet to come to fruition but could unfold in the future.