Hi, it’s Marc. ✌️
An SEC Commissioner just apologized to the crypto industry. On the record. To us.
“The regulatory approach made your lives a lot more difficult. I’ve talked to people who really were hurt. I do apologize for that.”
That’s Hester Peirce, who spent eight years as the SEC’s lone crypto dissenter and now leads its entire Crypto Task Force. The woman who quoted the cypherpunk manifesto from a government podium and wore protest t-shirts during commission meetings just filed the first-ever token classification framework with the White House.
The timing is perfect. This week, the SEC and CFTC published their first joint digital asset guidance. The stablecoin capital haircut dropped from 100% to 2%. And the token taxonomy Peirce helped architect is now sitting in the federal regulatory pipeline, potentially live by mid-2026.
I wanted to understand what’s actually changing inside the building, not the press releases, the thinking. Here’s what she told me.
About Hester: Yale Law. Former Goldman-era SEC staff attorney. Counsel to Paul Atkins (now SEC Chairman). Directed the Financial Markets Working Group at George Mason’s Mercatus Centre. She’s led the Crypto Task Force since January 2025 and co-authored Project Crypto, steering the agency from enforcement-first to rules-based.
🚨We’re opening sponsorships for our next podcast series. Top guests. Serious listeners. Claim your spot →
🎧 Jump to the best parts
00:00 Introduction to Hester Purse and Her Journey
01:50 Balancing Regulation and Freedom in Finance
04:35 Understanding Project Crypto and Its Goals
06:54 The SEC's Token Taxonomy Submission
08:47 Progress and Challenges in Crypto Regulation
10:48 The Shift in SEC's Stance on Crypto
12:14 Legislative Developments: Genius Act and Clarity Act
15:49 Political Influence on Crypto Regulation
18:52 Surveillance and Privacy in the Financial System
22:11 Meme Coins: Risks and Opportunities
26:44 Stablecoin Haircuts and Regulatory Guidance
28:22 Project Crypto's Institutional Credibility
30:38 The Impact of Stablecoins on U.S. Treasuries
31:21 NFTs and DeFi: Future Innovations
34:26 Learning from Past Regulatory Mistakes
35:55 Hester's Goals Before Her Term Ends
37:19 Innovation Exemption and Market Dynamics
38:27 Looking Forward: The Future of Crypto Regulation
42:15 Final Thoughts for Innovators in Crypto
Important Links
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hester_Peirce
SEC: https://www.sec.gov/about/sec-commissioners/hester-m-peirce
SEC Crypto Task Force: https://www.sec.gov/featured-topics/crypto-task-force
Watch or listen now:
YouTube • Apple Podcasts
On this topic
My biggest takeaways from this conversation:
1. The SEC isn't pro-crypto. It's pro-rules. That's more valuable.
Don’t confuse what’s happening here. The SEC didn’t wake up bullish. It stopped being hostile. And for capital allocation purposes, that distinction matters more than any endorsement ever could.
Peirce put it plainly:
“We went from being anti-crypto to not pro-crypto, but proactive in the sense that we’re trying to get to clarity. We’re not trying to put our thumb on the scale in favor of any particular asset or even any particular technology.”
Peirce’s position is that the SEC’s existing authority is broad enough to provide meaningful clarity right now, without waiting for Congress to resolve its internal politics.
“Getting it right is important, and I think if Congress can do that, then it will really form the basis for this sector of the economy for many years to come.”
The jurisdictional map is finally being drawn. Tokenised securities land with the SEC. Everything else lands with the CFTC, now headed by Mike Selig, the former chief counsel of the very crypto task force Peirce leads. That alignment between the two regulators is not accidental. It is the architecture.
Related reads:
2. The token taxonomy might be the most important crypto document nobody’s read
On March 3, the SEC submitted a Commission-level classification framework to the White House for interagency review. Four categories: digital commodities and network tokens, digital collectibles, digital tools, and tokenized securities. Only the last one stays under SEC jurisdiction.
The conceptual shift that matters: an investment contract can expire. A token sold as part of a securities transaction doesn’t remain a security forever just because it keeps trading.
“We’ll help people understand how we’re thinking about what an investment contract is, when it ceases to travel with a token.”
If the White House completes its 90-day review on schedule, this framework goes live by mid-2026. That gives the industry its first real regulatory map. Not guidance-by-enforcement. An actual map.
Peirce was careful not to preview the details, but she confirmed the taxonomy is coming soon and aligns with what Congress is working on in the CLARITY Act. If the White House completes its review within the standard 90-day window, this framework could be live by mid-2026, giving the industry its first real regulatory map.
“We’ll help people understand how we’re thinking about what an investment contract is, when it ceases to travel with a token.”
Related reads:
