3 hours ago
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President Donald Trump, pumper of multiple memecoins and perpetual rug puller, has tasked the US Securities and Exchange Commission with “developing a comprehensive and clear regulatory framework for crypto assets”—likely a very formal way of saying “lowers the crypto guardrails.” Acting Chairman Mark T. Uyeda is setting up a task force to be led by SEC Commissioner and long-time pal of crypto Hester Peirce in a move that will likely lead to a gift to the industry that backed Trump heavily during the 2024 Presidential election.
The SEC’s statement regarding the commission doesn’t really provide much insight into what it will seek to do, other than “provide clarity” on the rules regulating the crypto industry. It will likely achieve that by just stripping back those rules altogether, ditching what Uyeda refers to as “novel and untested legal interpretations” that were used to regulate the space under the previous administration.
During Biden’s term, the SEC led by Gary Gensler managed to make lots of enemies among crypto true believers by insisting that the so-called digital currencies be regulated as securities. Gensler also led major enforcement efforts against big players in the crypto space, including going after Coinbase for failing to register as a securities exchange and charging the Cumberland trading platform for operating as an unregistered dealer. He also led inquiries into crypto startups and their operations. Basically, he tried to enforce the law.
You can expect less of that under Hester Peirce’s guidance. She’s been nicknamed “Crypto Mom” by industry members thanks to her regular dissents against Gensler’s actions. She has opposed the SEC’s enforcement approach during Gensler’s reign and backed things like crypto ETFs, which basically every financial planning expert tells investors to stay away from. (Of course, that hasn’t stopped multiple states from betting parts of their pension fund for state employees on the volatile assets, a thing that surely won’t come back to bite them.)
As Trump loosens the leash on the crypto industry, people close to him are already reaping the rewards. He launched his own memecoin, $TRUMP, and then followed it up by promoting his wife’s memecoin, $MELANIA. Both coins have already seen a significant amount of ups and downs in the days since their launch, but have almost certainly netted some nice gains for insiders who found some suckers to hold the bag for them.
That, combined with the new SEC task force, will likely be taken as signals to crypto capitalists that their Ponzi schemes are legal now.
