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The relationship between Wall Street’s top cop and the US cryptocurrency industry is improving after more than four years of friction.
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Tuesday that it is leading efforts to create a regulatory framework for digital assets by creating a new cryptocurrency task force.
The initiative, which will be led by Republican Commissioner Hester Pierce, was the first official action by Acting President Mark Ueda after his appointment to the position by President Trump on Monday. Ueda, a Republican commissioner, will serve in the position until the Senate confirms Trump’s permanent pick of Paul Atkins to lead the agency.
FOX Business was the first to report in November that a task force was a possibility, with Hester Pierce, affectionately referred to by the industry as “Crypto Mom,” expressing interest in leading such a group.
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SEC Commissioner Mark Ueda speaks during the 2024 Quality in Financial Markets Conference at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., on September 17, 2024. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
As FOX Business previously reported, the task force will work closely with industry players to create an open dialogue that allows for a friendlier regulatory environment. The task force will focus on helping the commission draw clear regulatory lines, provide realistic paths to registration, formulate reasonable disclosure frameworks, and deploy enforcement resources wisely, Tuesday’s announcement said. It will also coordinate with other federal agencies, including the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which is preparing to take on a greater role in regulating cryptocurrencies.
The SEC, under Biden Chairman Gary Gensler, has filed more than 100 legal actions against cryptocurrency operators over the past four years as the commission has tried to bring the sector into compliance using enforcement. Many lawsuits have been filed over credible allegations of fraud and manipulation, but others focus on companies that failed to register their sales of digital assets as securities.
Industry participants have long complained that the decentralized nature of cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technology that powers them makes them ineligible for regulation like traditional securities, namely stocks and bonds. They have repeatedly called on regulators and Congress to develop a new regulatory framework for digital assets.
However, Gensler believes that traditional securities laws were sufficient to properly regulate the industry and that most digital assets except Bitcoin are securities, as he sued companies that challenged this view by refusing to register with the commission.
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SEC Chairman Gary Gensler participates in a meeting of the Financial Stability Oversight Board at the U.S. Department of the Treasury on July 28, 2023 in Washington, DC. The Board met to provide an update on the Board A’s Climate-Related Financial Risk Committee (Kevin Deitch/Getty Images/Getty Images)
President Trump has promised a lighter regulatory touch that will benefit developing industries such as artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies. Since his election on November 5, he has appointed a host of industry advocates to key leadership positions at the Treasury Department, the SEC and the CFTC, and appointed venture capitalist David Sachs the first-ever cryptocurrency and AI “czar.”
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Pierce and the Cryptocurrency Task Force are already welcoming regulatory-related contributions from the public via email and will hold roundtables with industry participants in the future.
“This project will take time, patience and a lot of hard work…” Pierce said in a message. press release Announcement of the initiative. “We look forward to working alongside the public to foster a regulatory environment that protects investors, facilitates capital formation, enhances market integrity, and supports innovation.”