John Reed Stark, the previous director of the Workplace of Web Enforcement at the USA Securities and Alternate Fee (SEC), pushed again towards the thought of regulatory reform on the first SEC crypto roundtable.
The previous regulator stated the Securities Act of 1933 and 1934 shouldn’t be modified to accommodate digital belongings and urged that digital belongings don’t escape the definition of securities underneath the present legal guidelines.
The primary-ever SEC crypto roundtable. Supply: SEC
“The folks shopping for crypto aren’t collectors. Everyone knows that they’re buyers, and the mission of the SEC is to guard buyers,” Stark stated. The previous official added:
“The quantity of case legislation has developed so rapidly due to all these crypto corporations. They went for this kind of delay, delay, delay, concept, they usually employed the most effective legislation corporations on the planet, and these legislation corporations all fought the SEC with unbelievable briefs.”
“I’ve learn each single certainly one of them. They usually misplaced nearly, I’d argue, each single time,” he continued.
Stark concluded that he noticed no innovation in digital belongings or cryptocurrencies in comparison with earlier on-line revolutions, such because the debut of the iPhone.
John Reed Stark, pictured on the far proper, arguing towards complete regulatory reform. Supply: SEC
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John Reed Stark: certainly one of crypto’s staunchest critics
Stark has been some of the vocal opponents of cryptocurrencies and the digital asset business, usually criticizing the business for a scarcity of transparency and accountability.
In February 2024, the previous SEC official characterised a sponsorship deal between the Dallas Mavericks — a Nationwide Basketball Affiliation (NBA) staff — and crypto agency Voyager as an settlement with a “heroin manufacturing firm.”
Stark later stated that the federal government company’s regulation by enforcement underneath former chairman Gary Gensler was warranted and added that cryptocurrency must conform to existing laws somewhat than the legislation evolving to embrace the way forward for cash.
Stark’s anti-crypto stance has been criticized by business executives and buyers as unhinged. In June 2023, notable investor Mark Cuban called out Reed’s views as “crypto derangement syndrome.”
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