SEC's | Crypto

An executive at tokenization platforms Superstate said the stricter approach suggested by Hester Peirce would enable DeFi to expand without compromising rules in traditional capital markets. US Securities and Exchange Commissioner Hester Peirce has told the crypto industry to cool its expectations about a potential “innovation exemption” to allow tokenized stock trading after a report earlier this week about what it could entail.  Her comments were made after a Bloomberg report on Monday. Brett Redfearn, president of tokenization platform Securitize, expressed concern following the report, arguing that enabling third parties to tokenize stock “without an issuer at the table” could lead to fragmentation issues.  In a post to X on Thursday, Peirce said her expectation has always been that any exemption would be “limited in scope” by only permitting “digital representations of the same underlying equity security that an investor could purchase in the secondary market today.” Read more

While the regulator under Atkins has dropped several cases against crypto companies, the SEC still awaits passage of a market structure bill to clarify its authority over crypto. Since Paul Atkins was sworn in as chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on April 21, 2025, the agency has significantly changed its position on regulation and enforcement related to digital assets, marking a shift from the leadership of former chair Gary Gensler during the Biden administration. During his 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump made removing Gensler one of his promises to the crypto industry, along with creating a national Bitcoin (BTC) stockpile and opposing the issuance of a US central bank digital currency. His November 2024 election win led to Gensler’s resignation in January 2025 and the appointment of SEC commissioner Mark Uyeda as acting chair of the financial regulator until the Senate could confirm Atkins as Trump’s pick to lead the agency.  Read more