The brand new chief counsel of the U.S. Securities and Trade Fee’s (SEC) freshly-created Crypto Activity Power is a crypto lawyer.
Mike Selig, who was named chief counsel of the duty pressure in a Monday announcement from the SEC, was beforehand a New York-based associate at white-shoe worldwide legislation agency Willkie Farr & Gallagher, the place he was a member of the agency’s crypto apply. Earlier than becoming a member of Willkie, Selig interned for the Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee (CFTC).
In a Monday X submit, former CFTC Chairman Chris Giancarlo, affectionately often called “CryptoDad” by many within the trade, congratulated Selig on his appointment. Giancarlo can also be senior counsel at Wilkie Farr, the place he leads the agency’s Digital Works apply.
“Proud and excited for my protege, former CFTC intern and Willkie associate Mike Selig to be named chief counsel to the brand new SEC Crypto Activity Power,” Giancarlo wrote.
Final October, Selig wrote an op-ed for CoinDesk laying out his recommendations for a way the SEC may transfer away from the so-called “regulation by enforcement” the company practiced underneath former Chair Gary Gensler and as an alternative create a regulatory atmosphere that encourages innovation. A number of of Selig’s recommendations — together with rescinding the controversial Employees Accounting Bulletin 121 and withdrawing from sure lawsuits – have already been carried out by the brand new Crypto Activity Power.
Selig was one in all 14 employees members named within the Monday announcement. His colleagues embody a number of crypto trade natives — Landon Zinda, former coverage director at crypto assume tank Coin Middle, and Veronica Reynolds, a former lawyer at Baker Hostetler LLP centered on NFTs and metaverse-related authorized points, each of whom will function senior advisors to the duty pressure — in addition to profession SEC employees. Zinda’s appointment to the duty pressure was introduced in February.
“The Crypto Activity Power reveals deep experience and an enthusiastic dedication to figuring out — with the assistance of different gifted employees throughout the Fee and members of the general public — workable options to troublesome crypto regulatory issues,” Commissioner Hester Peirce, the chief of the duty pressure, mentioned in a Monday assertion.
On March 21, the duty pressure will host its first roundtable dialogue, titled “How We Obtained Right here and How We Get Out – Defining Safety Standing” in an upcoming sequence on crypto regulation.
