SEC Holds Second Crypto Roundtable, Acting Chair Suggests Temporary Regulations

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) led its second crypto roundtable on Friday, with Acting Chair Mark Uyeda mentioning the possibility of provisional regulatory guidelines as long-term regulations are worked out.

SEC Crypto Roundtable Kicks Off

During the April 11 hearing entitled “Between a Block and a Hard Place: Tailoring Regulation for Crypto Trading,” Uyeda suggested putting forward temporary regulations in a bid to provide rapid clarity for the digital asset sector.

“While the Commission works to develop a long-term solution to address these issues, a time-limited, conditional exemptive relief framework for registrants and non-registrants could allow for greater innovation with blockchain technology within the United States in the near term,” Uyeda said.

“I encourage market participants that are developing new ways to trade securities using blockchain technology to provide input on where exemptive relief may be appropriate,” he added.

U.S.Crypto Regulatory Landscape Shifts

Hosted by the SEC’s Crypto Task Force and headquartered in Washington D.C., Thursday’s roundtable saw several key players from the cryptocurrency industry come together, including Uniswap Labs CLO Katherine Minarik, Associate General Counsel for Cumberland DRW Chelsea Pizzola, and Coinbase Institutional Product VP Greg Tusar.

Just last month, the SEC dropped its October 2024 lawsuit against Cumberland DRW after it alleged the agency had operated as an unregistered securities dealer.

The litigation’s dismissal marks a stark shift from the commission’s previous regulation-by-enforcement approach to cryptocurrencies under former Chair Gary Gensler.

Under U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, the federal regulator has dismissed numerous lawsuits against important actors in the crypto space including Kraken, Coinbase, and Consensys.

While the SEC’s new direction shows a shift from Gensler’s enforcement-heavy approach, crypto veterans know all too well that nothing’s certain in Washington until the ink is dry on final regulations.