This SEC Commissioner Wants To Redefine ‘Exchange’; Will It Save Crypto In US?

Crypto News: Hester Peirce, commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), on Friday came down heavily in criticism against the agency’s new proposed rules to amend the rule that redefines the word “exchange.” The SEC reopened the comment period for the proposal to amend the rule under the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934, also called the Exchange Act. While the Exchange Act broadly defines an exchange as an organization which provides a marketplace for purchasers and sellers of securities, the proposal calls for altering the definition with respect to decentralized finance (DeFi).

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SEC Commissioner’s Dissent

In a statement against the SEC proposal, Hester Peirce chose these strong words: stagnation, centralization, expatriation, and extinction to describe it. She said the proposal was an act of forcing centralization and rendering innovation useless. Peirce commented that the existing leadership in the commission was aggressively expanding its regulatory reach to “solve problems that do not exist.” The SEC’s basic approach is such that it cannot change rules such that there is no scope for new technologies or for new ways of doing business, she added in the statement.

“Rather than embracing the promise of new technology as we have done in the past, here we propose to embrace stagnation, force centralization, urge expatriation, and welcome extinction of new technology. Accordingly, I dissent.”

The commissioner’s dissenting voice comes in a stark contrast to the hostile approach of the SEC against the crypto market. Hence, amid widespread concerns of migration of crypto businesses outside the US, Peirce’s statement comes as a welcome move in the direction of saving the ecosystem in the United States.

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