Hester Peirce Leaves SEC After Years At The Center Of US Crypto Policy

TL;DR SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce is concluding her tenure at the agency on October 2. Peirce became one of the most visible voices inside the SEC on digital-asset regulation and led the agency’s Crypto Task Force. Her departure comes while major crypto rulemakings on custody, token classification and market structure are still underway. Hester Peirce is leaving the Securities and Exchange Commission with US crypto policy in a very different place from where it stood when she joined the Commission in 2018. SEC Chairman Paul Atkins and Commissioner Mark Uyeda published a departure statement on October 1 thanking Peirce for her service and highlighting her role in digital-asset policy. Her tenure concludes October 2. For the crypto industry, the departure closes a long chapter. Peirce spent years arguing that enforcement could not substitute for workable rules, often dissenting from the agency’s approach when that view was far from the institutional consensus. From dissenting voice to Crypto Task Force leader Peirce’s prominence in crypto regulation grew well before the SEC began its current rulemaking push. She repeatedly called for clearer token frameworks, proposed safe-harbor ...