SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, fondly called crypto mom, stated that the SEC withdrawing from over-enforcement does not mean it will not move in cases of clear violations in the crypto space.
Under new leadership, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has decided to drop several crypto-related lawsuits and probes. However, that doesn’t mean the agency will stop going after fraudsters, one of the agency’s top chiefs said on Thursday.
The SEC plans to use its power properly this time
The SEC under Gary Gensler became famous for dogging crypto with excessive regulation that stifled innovation, but things have changed. The change brought new leadership and apparently a new mandate that allowed the securities watchdog to drop several high-profile cases against firms like Coinbase, Uniswap, and OpenSea.
Still, while speaking at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas, Commissioner Hester Peirce told the crowd that the SEC’s new behavior does not mean people can now do whatever they want.
Peirce implied that the combative side of the SEC will now be reserved for people who violate the clear existing rules.
“It’s certainly not to say that there will not be enforcement. There’s a lot of bad activity, as we all know, that’s perpetrated in the name of crypto,” Peirce, who is a critic of the SEC’s previous tactic of “regulation through enforcement,” also said.
In that regard, she agrees with Gensler in that crypto was “rife with fraud and manipulation.” He also said that many cryptocurrencies would be securities, but Peirce has a contrasting stance, saying that most crypto assets are probably not themselves securities on Thursday.
As a result, Peirce believes trading platforms handling them shouldn’t need to register with the SEC unless they’re also touching the securities world.
Commissioner Hester Peirce wants accountability from crypto users
Peirce, nicknamed “crypto mom” because of her openness to the industry, also discussed investor loss and the SEC’s role on Thursday at the conference, calling for consistency, specifically among more libertarian folks in crypto.
“I do think that sometimes, when something bad happens in this space, people who are remarkably free thinkers, libertarian-minded people, come in and say, ‘Where was the government? Why weren’t you protecting me? Hey, Crypto Mom, where’s my bailout?’” she mused at the conference.
Peirce called for consistency. “Yes, you should have freedom to make your own choices,” she said. “And when it goes wrong, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, learn from it and do better next time. And that is the best way to move forward.”
Now that the SEC is led by Trump appointees, it has been busy issuing statements and directives to carve out corners of the crypto sector from the agency’s jurisdiction, including memecoins, some crypto mining and certain stablecoins.
Despite all the progress they have made, there is still much policy-making to come in the future, and lawmakers are also working on sweeping new laws that could further their agenda.
The SEC has a lot of current authority to clarify the nature of crypto securities, Peirce said. But if people want a U.S. federal regulator for retail trading, they’ll need Congress to produce legislation to make that happen.