John Reed Stark, the previous director of the Workplace of Web Enforcement at the US Securities and Alternate 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 property and urged that digital property 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 will not be collectors. Everyone knows that they’re traders, and the mission of the SEC is to guard traders,” Stark mentioned. The previous official added:
“The amount of case regulation has developed so rapidly due to all these crypto corporations. They went for this type of delay, delay, delay, thought, and so they employed the very best regulation corporations on the earth, and these regulation corporations all fought the SEC with unimaginable briefs.”
“I’ve learn each single certainly one of them. And so they misplaced nearly, I’d argue, each single time,” he continued.
Stark concluded that he noticed no innovation in digital property 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
Associated: SEC’s deadline extension is a ‘fork’ in case against Coinbase — John Reed Stark
John Reed Stark: certainly one of crypto’s staunchest critics
Stark has been one of the crucial vocal opponents of cryptocurrencies and the digital asset trade, typically criticizing the trade 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) staff — and crypto agency Voyager as an settlement with a “heroin manufacturing firm.”
Stark later mentioned that the federal government company’s regulation by enforcement beneath former chairman Gary Gensler was warranted and added that cryptocurrency must conform to existing laws quite than the regulation evolving to embrace the way forward for cash.
Stark’s anti-crypto stance has been criticized by trade executives and traders as unhinged. In June 2023, notable investor Mark Cuban called out Reed’s views as “crypto derangement syndrome.”
Journal: SEC’s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered
