President Donald Trump, multiple memecoin pumper and perpetual rug puller, has tasked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission with “developing a comprehensive and clear regulatory framework for crypto assets” – probably a very formal way of saying “lower cryptographic safeguards”. Acting Chairman Mark T. Uyeda is establishing a task force led by SEC Commissioner and longtime crypto friend Hester Peirce, a move that will likely lead to a giveaway to the industry that has heavily supported Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
The SEC’s statement regarding the commission doesn’t really give any insight into what it will seek to do, other than “provide clarity” on the rules governing the crypto industry. He will likely accomplish this by simply removing these rules, abandoning what Uyeda calls “new and untested legal interpretations” that were used to regulate space under the previous administration.
During Biden’s term, the Gary Gensler-led SEC managed to make many enemies among crypto true believers by insisting that so-called digital currencies be regulated as securities. Gensler has also led significant enforcement efforts against big players in the crypto space, including going after Coinbase for failing to register as a securities exchange and charging Cumberland’s trading platform for operating as an unregistered broker. He has also conducted surveys on crypto startups and their operations. Basically, he was trying to enforce the law.
You can expect less of that under the direction of Hester Peirce. She has been nicknamed “Crypto Mom” by industry members thanks to her regular dissents against Gensler’s actions. She opposed the SEC’s enforcement approach during Gensler’s reign and supported things like crypto ETFs, which virtually every financial planning expert tells investors to stay away from. (Of course, that hasn’t stopped several states from betting part of their state employee pension funds on volatile assets, something that surely won’t come back to bite them.)
As Trump loosens the leash on the crypto industry, those close to him are already reaping the rewards. He launched his own memecoin, $TRUMP, and then went on to promote his wife’s memecoin, $MELANIA. Both coins have already seen significant ups and downs in the days since their launch, but have almost certainly generated nice gains for insiders who have found suckers to hold the bag for them.
This, combined with the new SEC task force, will likely be seen as a signal to crypto-capitalists that their Ponzi schemes are now legal.
