U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Commissioner Hester M. Peirce delivered remarks at The Digital Chamber’s DC Blockchain Summit outlining how the SEC’s Crypto Task Force is gathering input to build a crypto regulatory framework and seeking to pair jurisdictional clarity with practical compliance pathways. She emphasized short- and medium-term steps such as clarifying what falls outside SEC jurisdiction, supporting workable approaches for activities within SEC jurisdiction, and processing well-reasoned no-action and exemptive relief requests that can be finalized quickly. The Crypto Task Force has held multiple meetings with external parties, received approximately fifty written submissions, and hosted its first public roundtable on March 21, 2025, with four more roundtables planned. The remarks highlighted the need to distinguish between the asset and the transaction, noting that many crypto assets are not securities while primary offerings used for capital raising can be securities transactions, and that staff is open to inquiries on conducting such offerings on a registered or exempt basis. Looking to longer-term market structure, Peirce pointed to legislation under consideration that would assign roles to the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and argued that Congress should reduce regulatory overlap by relying on existing regulators, limiting statutory reach to domestic activity, pre-empting state regulation where federal regulators cover interstate commerce, and clearly allocating jurisdiction for particular types of crypto assets. She also sketched additional legislative design options, including flexibility in where crypto assets can trade across SEC- and CFTC-regulated venues and explicit authority for SEC-regulated exchanges and Alternative Trading Systems to trade non-security crypto assets with SEC oversight extending to all transactions on registered platforms. A more principles-based regime for crypto trading platforms could include direct retail access and specified customer protections such as proof of reserves, Exchange Act Rules 15c3-1 and 15c3-3 for custodied assets, atomic settlement, customer priority in bankruptcy and insolvency, information barriers, electronic disclosure of transaction costs, and standardized material information about crypto assets, supported by examination and enforcement tools. The remarks also called for protecting peer-to-peer transacting, including through software, as part of the overall market structure approach.

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