SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce said that crypto assets, tokenization, and financial privacy are now top priorities for the agency.
Speaking at the DC Privacy Summit, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce said the agency is working closely with Congress on new legislation to regulate the digital asset industry. Peirce emphasized that tokenization has become a major focus for the SEC, noting that companies are racing to bring their stocks onto blockchain platforms.
She pointed to Nasdaq’s recent application to trade tokenized securities as an example of this growing trend. However, Peirce noted that the ongoing U.S. government shutdown due to the budget crisis has brought many SEC activities to a standstill, delaying pending crypto ETF approvals. “Pretty much nothing is getting done right now,” she said.
Peirce also discussed how crypto has sparked new awareness about financial privacy. She argued that traditional AML and KYC frameworks don’t fully fit crypto’s peer-to-peer nature, suggesting this presents a chance to redesign the system from scratch. Finally, Peirce revealed that under its new leadership, the SEC has launched an initiative called “Project Crypto,” aiming to rebuild its policy framework and engage with the industry in a more balanced and collaborative way.
