As SEC’s ‘Crypto Mom’ Peirce Nears Departure, Industry Urges Her Policy Approach Continue

The U.S. digital-asset industry is calling for the policy approach of Securities and Exchange Commission Commissioner Hester Peirce to continue as she leaves office on October 2. Peirce has long been known in the industry as “Crypto Mom” for her digital-asset-friendly stance.

Will Schweitzer, policy counsel at the Blockchain Association, made that argument in a CoinDesk opinion piece published on October 2. “It is now up to us to carry forward Commissioner Peirce’s mission,” he wrote. The technology already exists to let consumers control their own data while still meeting legal obligations, he added.

Schweitzer wrote that Peirce had spent the past eight years at the SEC pressing for clear rules rather than regulation by enforcement. He said she helped build a regulatory framework for digital assets by proposing a token safe harbor and leading the SEC Crypto Task Force. He added that she had consistently argued the SEC’s investor-protection mandate requires clear regulatory guidelines for the fast-growing digital-asset industry.

Schweitzer said the next goal for the U.S. digital-asset industry should be “financial privacy,” a theme Peirce has emphasized ahead of her departure. The current U.S. financial regulatory system is built around the large-scale collection and storage of personal data from consumers who use the financial system, he wrote. Centralized data repositories magnify the damage from data breaches and expose consumers to greater risk.

In Schweitzer’s view, privacy-enhancing technologies such as blockchain and zero-knowledge proofs, or ZKPs, could offer an alternative. With zero-knowledge proofs, individuals can prove they are eligible to make a transaction without disclosing unnecessary information. That would allow consumers to control their own data while still complying with legal requirements. The technology needed to build a consumer-centered digital economy already exists, he wrote, but what is missing is a regulatory framework that allows and encourages its adoption.