John Reed Stark, the previous director of the Workplace of Web Enforcement at america Securities and Trade Fee (SEC), pushed again towards the concept of regulatory reform on the first SEC crypto roundtable.
The previous regulator mentioned the Securities Act of 1933 and 1934 shouldn’t be modified to accommodate digital property and urged that digital property don’t escape the definition of securities underneath the present legal guidelines.
The primary-ever SEC crypto roundtable. Supply: SEC
“The individuals shopping for crypto aren’t collectors. Everyone knows that they’re traders, and the mission of the SEC is to guard traders,” Stark mentioned. The previous official added:
“The amount of case legislation has developed so shortly due to all these crypto corporations. They went for this type of delay, delay, delay, concept, and so they employed the very best legislation corporations on the earth, and these legislation corporations all fought the SEC with unimaginable briefs.”
“I’ve learn each single one in every of them. They usually misplaced nearly, I might argue, each single time,” he continued.
Stark concluded that he noticed no innovation in digital property 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 towards complete regulatory reform. Supply: SEC
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John Reed Stark: one in every of crypto’s staunchest critics
Stark has been some of the vocal opponents of cryptocurrencies and the digital asset business, typically criticizing the business for a scarcity of transparency and accountability.
In February 2024, the previous SEC official characterised a sponsorship deal between the Dallas Mavericks — a Nationwide Basketball Affiliation (NBA) staff — and crypto agency Voyager as an settlement with a “heroin manufacturing agency.”
Stark later mentioned that the federal government company’s regulation by enforcement underneath former chairman Gary Gensler was warranted and added that cryptocurrency should conform to current legal guidelines reasonably than the legislation evolving to embrace the way forward for cash.
Stark’s anti-crypto stance has been criticized by business executives and traders as unhinged. In June 2023, notable investor Mark Cuban known as out Reed’s views as “crypto derangement syndrome.”
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