SEC Looks To Implement New Crypto Regulations, Says Commissioner Hester Peirce

Hester Peirce, Commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), is hinting that new crypto regulations may be around the corner.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Peirce names three main aspects of the crypto space that she hopes to tackle soon.

“I hope that we can provide clarity in a few different areas. One would be, I’ve put out a token safe harbor to give some clarity around token distribution events. I think we need to approve an exchange-traded product (ETP) based on Bitcoin, and frankly we’ve gotten new applications in based on ETH as well. And then we need to provide clarity around custody for regulated entities, so for broker-dealers and investment advisors. Those are some of the areas I’d like us to take action in.”

Peirce notes that SEC chairman Gary Gensler has already been vocal about having some oversight over the Bitcoin spot markets and has called for more investor protections in crypto.

Commissioner Peirce also gives her take on the SEC’s ongoing lawsuit against Ripple, which accuses the San Fransisco-based payments company of securities fraud in relation to the distribution of its native token XRP.

“Well that is a difficult question, and it’s something that I’ve also again tried to get us to be a little bit more precise. When thinking about a crypto asset, a digital asset as being a security, what we’re doing is we’re saying that we think it’s being sold as part of an investment contract, which means that there’s promises being made around the sale of that asset. It doesn’t mean that the asset itself has to be a security. It means that it was being sold as a security. Then the question becomes, at what point can someone sell that asset not as a security, and that is a very difficult line…” 

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