John Reed Stark, the previous director of the Workplace of Web Enforcement at the US Securities and Trade Fee (SEC), pushed again towards the thought of regulatory reform on the first SEC crypto roundtable.
The previous regulator mentioned the Securities Act of 1933 and 1934 shouldn’t be modified to accommodate digital belongings and urged that digital belongings don’t escape the definition of securities beneath the present legal guidelines.
The primary-ever SEC crypto roundtable. Supply: SEC
“The folks shopping for crypto aren’t collectors. Everyone knows that they’re buyers, and the mission of the SEC is to guard buyers,” Stark mentioned. The previous official added:
“The quantity of case legislation has developed so shortly due to all these crypto companies. They went for this type of delay, delay, delay, thought, they usually employed the perfect legislation companies on this planet, and these legislation companies all fought the SEC with unbelievable briefs.”
“I’ve learn each single one among them. They usually misplaced nearly, I might argue, each single time,” he continued.
Stark concluded that he noticed no innovation in digital belongings or cryptocurrencies in comparison with earlier on-line revolutions, such because the debut of the iPhone.
John Reed Stark, pictured on the far proper, arguing towards complete regulatory reform. Supply: SEC
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John Reed Stark: one among crypto’s staunchest critics
Stark has been some of the vocal opponents of cryptocurrencies and the digital asset business, typically criticizing the business for an absence of transparency and accountability.
In February 2024, the previous SEC official characterised a sponsorship deal between the Dallas Mavericks — a Nationwide Basketball Affiliation (NBA) workforce — and crypto agency Voyager as an settlement with a “heroin manufacturing agency.”
Stark later mentioned that the federal government company’s regulation by enforcement beneath former chairman Gary Gensler was warranted and added that cryptocurrency should conform to present legal guidelines relatively than the legislation evolving to embrace the way forward for cash.
Stark’s anti-crypto stance has been criticized by business executives and buyers as unhinged. In June 2023, notable investor Mark Cuban referred to as out Reed’s views as “crypto derangement syndrome.”
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