SEC Official Suggests Congress Consider Crypto Jurisdiction – MeriTalk

Securities and Exchange Commission member Hester Peirce said on July 21 that Congress should consider regulatory jurisdictions that should apply to different types of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets, saying those jurisdictions could vary depending on the different characteristics of individual digital assets.

Speaking at the MerITocracy American Innovation Forum, Peirce spoke about the continuing — and sometimes acrimonious — debate over the future of digital asset regulation. This debate has involved arriving at definitions of digital assets, and the potential jurisdictions of federal regulators, including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the Federal Trade Commission.

At the same time, Congress is taking steps toward through several legislative efforts in the House and Senate to sort out regulatory jurisdictions for digital assets, and the Biden administration has several federal agencies also working on the same set of issues through an executive order issued earlier this day. year.

“I certainly think it would be helpful if Congress weighed in” on that debate, Commissioner Peirce said.

“Crypto is a big topic, and I think a lot of crypto will end up interfering with other things that we do as a society, whether it’s finance, securities or social networks or other aspects of society,” she said. “I think that crypto will have applications in many different areas, so it’s difficult to just write a broad piece of legislation for crypto in general,” Commissioner Peirce said.

“But there are certain aspects I think we can address,” she said, pointing to “stable coins” whose value is tied to another asset class such as cryptocurrency, fiat money or exchange-traded commodities. “You could write a piece of legislation to say we want them to be regulated by these entities — maybe the bank regulators, maybe the SEC, or maybe some combination.”

“You can do the same thing with crypto assets,” Commissioner Peirce said. “Congress could try to put a framework around how to determine whether something falls within the SEC’s jurisdiction, or the CFTC’s.”

“I would say that I think the SEC could be a pretty natural good regulator in this area for things like a trading platform that deals in cryptoassets,” she continued. “In my ideal world, would I have a federal regulator in that room? Maybe not, but I think a lot of other people think it’s necessary.”

“If you’re going to have one, I think we can make a credible case that the SEC would be good at it,” Commissioner Peirce said. “We are used to dealing with retail, [and] we’re used to thinking about how trading platforms work, so in some ways I think we have a really natural place.”

“But there are also going to be areas where we have to deviate a little bit from the way we’ve done things in the past,” she said. “And the question is, are we able to state what our goals are to achieve those goals, but still allow some of the flexibility?”