SEC Commissioner advocates cryptocurrency and insists on their self-regulation

Member of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Hester Pierce, believes that cryptocurrency markets should be given the opportunity to self-regulate, when possible. The Commissioner made relevant remarks at the MIT Bitcoin Expo 2019 event on Saturday during a discussion with the Chair of the Commodity Futures Commission for Commerce of the USA (CFTC) Gary Gensler.

Gensler spoke in favor of creating clearer and more uniform regulation at the national level, noting that the positive impact of such a structure will be felt not only by platforms that work with security tokens and complex investment instruments, but also by those associated with the underlying assets of this market. , for example with bitcoin.

In response, Pierce stated:

“It is important to remember that people regulate each other in the process of interaction. This is the purpose of Bitcoin – to create a community that will be able to regulate itself. As problems arise, people in this community begin to look for ways to solve them. One of the models provides for regulation by the state, but I think this is not the only model. ”

Gensler believes that the state regulation of the cryptocurrency industry should address more aspects related to the protection of investors, countering money laundering and to eliminate the legal contradictions that currently exist at the level of individual states.

Pierce noted that local authorities should follow uniform requirements defined by the laws on the implementation of remittances, but at the same time they can make individual requirements.

“We chose this model of regulation. But again, these markets could regulate themselves on their own if we lived in a world where it would be allowed , ”she explained.

Pierce added that the regulation should remain soft unless specific conditions require otherwise. Nevertheless, representatives of the cryptocurrency industry are obliged to follow the provisions of the SEC related to the registration of a business, and declare themselves either as a cryptocurrency exchange or as an alternative trading platform that will allow them to work with security tokens within the law.

In addition, Pierce argues that a situation in which access to financial instruments, including in the crypto-market, can only get rich investors, should not be:

“Our rules for accredited investors, in fact, say that you must have a certain level of assets or income in order to work with some investment products. Personally, I think that these rules do not correspond to the spirit of our country, where people are given opportunities to use their skills and mental abilities to improve the quality of life. We create artificial barriers so that people cannot do this. We should revise the concept of an accredited investor so that people can work with financial instruments in this area. ”

Pierce also returned to the question of rejecting the application of the Winklevoss brothers to launch Bitcoin-ETF :

“I believe that in this case the SEC went beyond the limits of the powers granted by the law. We should have approved the trade in this instrument. ”

In February, Pierce said that the current uncertainty in regulating the cryptocurrency industry allows its players to act more freely.

Publication date 12.03.2019
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