During his fourth day of work, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange commission (SEC), Paul Atkins, adopted a pro-innovation position on cryptocurrency in a marked difference in the approach of the application of the previous administration.
Speaking during the third round table of the agency’s crypto working group Friday April 25, Atkins strongly criticized the regulatory management taken under the Biden administration and is committed to tackling “long -term problems” surrounding digital assets and blockchain technology.
“Innovation has been suffocated for several years due to the uncertainty of the market and regulation that, unfortunately, the SEC has favored,” said Atkins, who previously served two mandates under former president George W. Bush.
The remarks of the dry chair have prepared the ground for a major pivot In the United States, cryptographic policy, which could encourage the growth of the digital asset market at the national level rather than pushing it abroad.
Market players “deserve clear regulatory rules of the road,” said Atkins, adding that he will work to establish a “rational framework adjusted for use for cryptographic assets”.
Atkins said that the SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce will be Leading efforts To create this framework. He congratulated his “advocacy in principle and tireless for the policy of cryptography of common sense”, noting that she “rightly won the title of” Crypto Maman “.
“It’s an important job,” he said. “As the United States entrepreneurs exploit blockchain technology to modernize the aspects of the financial system, I expect enormous advantages of this innovation on the market in terms of efficiency, cost reduction, transparency and risk attenuation.”
The Round Table of the SEC was centered on one of the most thorny regulatory challenges: how brokers and investment companies can safely hold digital assets in accordance with federal securities.
Seamus Rocca, CEO of the Xapo Bank Compatible Bitcoin, told Pymnts that the renewed SEC accent on the Crypto client is a “welcome stage”.
“The secure custody of digital assets is not a good one in Have Technique – this is the foundation of the investor Trust. But the rules must reflect reality,” said Rocca.
The guard of cryptography is fundamentally different from traditional finance and “specially designed infrastructure, not a modernized game book. Although crypto exchanges can seek to provide banking services, it is essential to guarantee that consumers are aware of the clear difference in compliance and surveillance, “he added.
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Two different systems compete
A big problem not causing anxiety is that today’s regulatory framework – built around the physical possession of paper paper certificates – is not well suited to blockchain technology.
“We now have a different system with the digital asset ecosystem, and it does not correspond squarely in the rules that have been written for a completely different system,” said Susan Gault-Brown, partner of Allen Overy Shearman Sterling LLP.
Other panelists from the round table have echoed that the traditional models of guard do not correspond.
“In Crypto, we have created a technological infrastructure where you do not need intermediaries and you do not need counterparties,” said Larry Florio, 1kx general lawyer, a cryptographic fund manager. “There are unique abilities that come with it, and There is Unique risks too.
Adam Levitin, professor of law and finance at Georgetown Law, noted: “We are trying to adapt a technology designed to be a peer payment system in a centralized trading system, and it is not a good correspondence.”
Levitin said that the traditional understanding of a goalkeeper is someone That has Physically hold your assets.
“They are going to have a safe or something, and we will make sure that the door is a sufficient number of thickness, then it is fireproof for 24 hours,” he said. “It’s a Really Different sets of skills than those necessary to secure the crypto. »»
Several panelists have pleaded for an approach based on the principles of guard regulation rather than focusing on technology, because it is difficult for the rules to follow digital progress.
“The principle-based rule is probably better than a technology (since) based on technology evolves quickly,” said Mark Greenberg, vice-president of companies and consumer products at Kraken. “The keys must be held in the systems, not by people, and that means that the old rule of” not my keys, not my crypto “probably no longer applies in this regard.”
A recurring theme was the need for regulatory flexibility to adapt to a rapid technological change. If the care rules are too normative, have warned several panelists, they risk becoming obsolete as technology evolves.
Several panelists have said that the lack of regulatory clarity stimulates innovation abroad.
“What was probably the most shameful in the past four years is that we have received approvals in several foreign jurisdictions, and we were essentially paralyzed in our hometown,” said Baylor Myers, vice-president of business development at Bitgo. “It was really shameful and sad, and I hope it was going to change.”
Brandon Russell, CEO of Etana Custody, accepted. He said foreign regulators were clearer about their rules, which helped cryptographic companies a lot.
“If you are going to consider foreign regulations as a kind of guiding light, this is probably the biggest point to remember-there have been early clarifications that allowed these markets to evolve,” he said.
