US SEC Commissioner Urges Crypto Firms To Not Give Up The Fight

Pro-Crypto US SEC Commissioner Hester Pierce has urged crypto firms not to back down in the push for regulatory clarity amidst the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) continued clampdown on several notable digital asset companies. 

Regulatory Uncertainty “Shall Pass”

Despite the not-so-cordial relationship that may exist between the SEC and stakeholders in the crypto industry, Pierce believes there is a need for collaboration as these stakeholders need to discuss with the commission the right approach to regulating the industry. This may prompt the Commission to have “a change of heart,” according to her.

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Pierce stated, “Don’t give up on the United States. This too shall pass, the confusion shall pass,” in a direct address to crypto companies in the country. 

She emphasized the need for regulatory clarity on digital assets, suggesting that the Commission was “far behind” in developing a comprehensive regulatory framework on digital assets. She referred to how other countries like Switzerland and Singapore seemed to be ahead in terms of providing regulatory clarity to the digital asset firms in those countries. 

Many believe that the SEC’s approach to the industry may be because the Commission may not be familiar with the technology. However, Pierce dispelled this notion as she mentioned that there are “a lot of people who know quite a bit about crypto at the agency.”

The SEC has long been criticized for how it has continued to crack down on the digital asset industry despite not having a regulatory framework in place from which it can derive legitimacy to carry out such enforcement actions. 

For one, many have argued that the SEC has acted outside its regulatory purview whenever it institutes certain actions against crypto firms, as the SEC should be mainly concerned with companies offering securities under which crypto doesn’t fall. 

That line of argument happened to be what Coinbase, the largest exchange in the US, adopted in its reply to the lawsuit that the Commission instituted against it for operating as an unregistered securities exchange by offering several digital assets on its platform.  

Regulatory Certainty Needed To Keep Crypto Entrepreneurs 

Pierce’s comments come at a time when Solana’s co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko urged the US Congress to move swiftly to develop laws that regulate the crypto industry. According to him, this is needed to “protect American technological leadership.”

The regulatory uncertainty in the US is believed to be one of the factors deterring several entrepreneurs from kickstarting their crypto projects in the country. Meanwhile, others that had an existing business in the US have chosen to move their operations abroad following the lack of clarity.

One such company happens to be the crypto exchange Bittrex, which winded down its US operations earlier this year due to the “continued regulatory uncertainty.”