Thank you, Acting Chairman Uyeda and Commissioner Crenshaw. I am delighted to welcome everyone to the inaugural roundtable of the Spring Sprint Toward Crypto Clarity series. Thank you to our panelists, who bring years of experience and serious consideration of the topic at hand to the table. It is fitting that today’s panel takes place exactly two months after Acting Chairman Uyeda announced the formation of the Crypto Task Force and just as D.C. is brimming with signs of spring. Spring signifies new beginnings, and we have a new beginning here: a restart of the Commission’s approach to crypto regulation. The formation of the Crypto Task Force gave permission to staff in the building to work earnestly towards a workable framework for crypto regulation, and staff have responded with palpable enthusiasm. The enthusiasm in this room is also palpable, so let us seize the moment and have a meaningful conversation today.
This room is full of people—on the panel, on the Crypto Task Force, on the Commission staff, and in the audience—who are ready for sprint ahead. People have been talking, thinking, and writing about the issues with which we are now wrestling. The roundtable series will allow us to explore the issues collaboratively. I am reminded of a story my brother told me recently. He invited a friend over and walked him back to see a shed on his property that was in poor repair. “It’s not worth saving, is it?” he asked his friend. “Sure it is,” the friend who is quite handy replied, “Let’s get your tractor and haul in some lumber.” “But my tractor isn’t working at the moment,” said my brother. “OK, let’s fix it.” So that day they repaired the tractor and the shed with impressive alacrity
Today’s panelists have to get the tractor running—address definitional questions—so we can build the shed—design a sturdy and functional regulatory framework. They are as adept as my brother and his friend, so I have high hopes for what we can accomplish today.
To do this work well, we have to tackle some foundational questions about security status.
- What makes something a security?
- Is that status permanent, or might an asset start as a security and convert to a non-security, or vice versa?
- How does decentralization affect the analysis?
- Can we translate the characteristics of a security into a simple taxonomy that will cover the many different types of crypto assets that exist today and will exist in the future?
Thank you to everyone who made today’s roundtable possible. A lot of work went into making this happen. I look forward to the conversation and am happy to turn over the stage to our esteemed panelists and moderator, former SEC Commissioner Troy Paredes.
