SEC Hosts Roundtable on Crypto Trading Regulation
Commentary by Steven Lofchie
The SEC's Crypto Task Force released the names of panelists for an upcoming roundtable on the regulation of crypto trading.
The roundtable is scheduled for April 11, 2025, and will include:
- Tyler Gellasch, President and CEO, Healthy Markets Association.
- Jon Herrick, Chief Product Officer, New York Stock Exchange.
- Richard Johnson, CEO & Founder, Texture Capital.
- Dave Lauer, Co-Founder, Urvin Finance and We the Investors.
- Katherine Minarik, Chief Legal Officer, Uniswap Labs.
- Christine Parlour, Chair of Finance and Accounting, UC Berkeley.
- Chelsea Pizzola, Associate General Counsel, Cumberland DRW.
- Austin Reid, Global Head of Revenue and Business, FalconX.
- Gregory Tusar, VP, Institutional Product, Coinbase.
Commentary
For all the questions about the constitutionality of the "independent agencies," it is a very useful feature of the independent agencies that the political party to which the President does not belong has a voice, and can express its opposition, even if that opposition cannot change the actions of the agency.
Under the previous Administration, the Commissioners who were in the minority (Commissioners Peirce and Uyeda) were able to voice reasoned opposition to the actions of the majority. That opposition was crucial in pointing out the deficiencies in the rule makings and the enforcement actions and laid the groundwork for the new Administration.
By way of contrast, compare FSOC, which is made up solely of representatives of the President's party. While it is supposed to be above the fray and act as a risk spotter broadly, it completely has failed in this regard, since it simply has repeated back the concerns of the party to which its members belong.
As to this hearing, the fact that the independent agency structure allows for the expression of minority views (in this case, Commissioner Crenshaw) is a great positive. Providing room for this expression is not inconsistent with allowing the President to appoint the members of the Commission that make up the majority.