SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, the agency's longtime crypto advocate, will leave the commission on Oct. 2. Her resignation letter arrived the same day the SEC issued new staff guidance on crypto asset definitions, and it leaves the commission with just two sitting members.
Hester Peirce, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's steadiest voice for crypto rules, set her departure for Oct. 2 in a resignation letter she posted Friday on X. The letter surfaced the same day the SEC published new crypto policy guidance clarifying how it defines tokens and what it expects from how projects are marketed.
Years pushing for rules, then a chance to write them
Peirce spent years pressing for clear crypto regulation during the chairmanships of Republican Jay Clayton and Democrat Gary Gensler, both of whom instead pursued aggressive enforcement against the industry. She got her opening under President Donald Trump, taking charge of the SEC's Crypto Task Force before Chairman Paul Atkins even arrived. In a 2019 speech, she said the agency had "hindered innovation and growth" during that enforcement-heavy era.
Her work included policy statements and guidance touching mining, staking and memecoins, plus a framework for classifying different crypto assets. The agency also began drafting formal rules, starting with a proposal known as Regulation Crypto Assets, meant to let projects offer crypto assets without triggering stringent securities regulations.
The "innovation exemption" caps her tenure
Her most visible achievement may be the SEC's opening of a pathway for tokenizing securities, dubbed the "innovation exemption." It is meant to launch the tokenized-securities era through a limited, five-year approach that will inform more permanent rules later. Peirce, who is joining Regent University School of Law as an associate professor, wrote in her resignation that giving people freedom to choose what works for them within sensible rules is a delicate task for regulators.
A new FAQ lands the same day
On Friday, the agency added to that legacy with a new frequently-asked-questions document addressing how crypto projects can avoid triggering "essential managerial efforts" tests when marketing tokens or updating software. The document also covered "staking receipt tokens" and when a secondary market might count as a "promoter" of an investment contract.
Her exit leaves the commission with only two sitting members, Atkins and Republican appointee Mark Uyeda. Agency rules allow two members to act as a quorum when the commission is shorthanded, but the Trump White House has yet to name Democratic nominees to the SEC or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, leaving it unclear whether the vacancies will be filled.
Source: CoinDesk
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