John Reed Stark, the previous director of the Workplace of Web Enforcement at the US Securities and Trade Fee (SEC), pushed again in opposition to the concept of regulatory reform on the first SEC crypto roundtable.
The previous regulator stated 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 below the present legal guidelines.
The primary-ever SEC crypto roundtable. Supply: SEC
“The folks shopping for crypto are usually not collectors. Everyone knows that they’re traders, and the mission of the SEC is to guard traders,” Stark stated. 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, concept, and so they employed the perfect legislation companies on this planet, and these legislation companies all fought the SEC with unimaginable briefs.”
“I’ve learn each single one among them. And so they misplaced nearly, I’d 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 in opposition to complete regulatory reform. Supply: SEC
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John Reed Stark: one among crypto’s staunchest critics
Stark has been probably the most 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) group — and crypto agency Voyager as an settlement with a “heroin manufacturing firm.”
Stark later stated that the federal government company’s regulation by enforcement below former chairman Gary Gensler was warranted and added that cryptocurrency must conform to existing laws slightly than the legislation 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.”
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