The U.S. Securities and Trade Fee’s deputy director of the Division of Company Finance, Cicely LaMothe, has introduced her retirement after a 24-year tenure with the fee, throughout which she supported a number of pro-crypto initiatives that helped lay the groundwork for the SEC’s present, extra supportive posture towards the digital asset area.
Abstract
- Cicely LaMothe has retired from the SEC after a 24-year profession that included senior management roles throughout the Division of Company Finance.
- She performed a key function in workers steerage on memecoins, staking frameworks, and crypto-linked exchange-traded merchandise throughout a pivotal yr for the company.
On Monday, Dec. 29, LaMothe, who presently serves because the Deputy Director for Disclosure Operations, introduced her retirement following a tenure that spanned greater than twenty years.
“After greater than twenty years on the SEC, I depart with a deep sense of honor and gratitude for the chance to serve the American public. The work has been extremely difficult and rewarding, and I’ve discovered immensely from the devoted people who commit themselves each day to this important mission,” she mentioned within the Dec. 29 assertion.
LaMothe is a graduate in accounting from Hampton College and a Licensed Public Accountant who joined the fee again in 2002 after working for six years within the non-public sector, together with as a monetary reporting supervisor at a public firm and with a nationwide accounting agency.
All through her years with the company, she has served a number of key roles, together with Program Director of the Disclosure Evaluation Program, Affiliate Director of Disclosure Operations, and Affiliate Director of the Workplace of Evaluation and Steady Enchancment, earlier than stepping in because the Performing Director of the Division of Company Finance from December 2024 till October 2025.
Through the years, LaMothe has performed an important function in shaping the SEC’s coverage strategy towards crypto and was one of many key figures behind the company’s plan to open an Workplace of Crypto Belongings throughout the Division of Company Finance to handle distinctive submitting overview points associated to digital property.
Throughout her remaining yr, LaMothe’s work on crypto property on the SEC targeted on offering interpretive steerage via workers statements, which has been useful for clarifying current laws.
LaMothe notably spearheaded steerage {that a} meme coin shouldn’t be robotically labeled as a safety, which was launched earlier this yr. That clarification proved to be essential in serving to pave the best way for the submitting of a number of meme coin ETFs, together with these tied to property like Dogecoin and Bonk.
She was additionally behind an announcement that supplied clear steerage in distinguishing between centralized custodial staking and non-custodial staking by people, and behind one other that helped lay the muse for a quicker approval course of for varied crypto ETPs by the tip of 2025.
In complete, LaMothe was concerned in issuing seven workers statements on a variety of crypto-related points, together with the applying of securities legal guidelines to sure stablecoin preparations and clarifications concerning disclosures for public firms engaged in crypto mining.
Professional-crypto voices depart
LaMothe’s retirement comes at a time when quite a lot of different crypto-friendly officers are set to depart from key authorities roles.
Caroline Pham, who served because the Performing Chair of the CFTC for a lot of 2025, has introduced that she is leaving to hitch the non-public sector as Chief Authorized Officer at MoonPay, a crypto infrastructure service supplier. She has led a number of pro-crypto initiatives, most lately pushing for the launch of leveraged spot crypto buying and selling.
Rostin Behnam, the previous Chairman of the CFTC who had actively advocated for Congress to grant the company broader oversight over the spot crypto markets, had additionally stepped down earlier this yr.
In the meantime, Senator Cynthia Lummis, a key crypto proponent in Congress and a number one advocate for the concept of a U.S. strategic Bitcoin reserve, has revealed she is not going to search re-election subsequent November.
