In Brief:
- SEC Commissioner Elad Roisman to resign from the SEC by January.
- Roisman is an avid supporter of crypto and often clashed with SEC Chairman Gary Gensler.
- Roisman and Hester Peirce stated that the SEC’s inability to develop investor guidelines in the digital asset market encourages fraudsters.
Commissioner Elad Roisman, one of two Republicans on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), announced that he will resign by the end of January.
Roisman stated in the announcement that he had written to President Joe Biden to notify him of his decision to depart the SEC. He was appointed by the Trump administration in September 2018 and worked as acting SEC chair from December 2020 to January 2021.
Many saw Roisman as a supporter of the crypto sector during his time at the SEC because of his seeming positive stances on digital asset regulation.
Roisman stated the SEC should “examine and re-examine its rules, regulations, and guidelines” when it came to emerging technologies like crypto and blockchain during his stint as chief counsel of the US Senate Banking Committee.
The commissioner, along with colleague Republican commissioner Hester Peirce also known as ‘Crypto Mom’, was an outspoken opponent of SEC Chairman Gary Gensler’s agenda, voting against recent revisions to money market fund regulations.
Roisman along with Peirce feels that the SEC should be more open about which crypto assets qualify as securities or tradeable financial instruments.
Crypto exchanges as well as other digital asset businesses have argued that if they are unintentionally dealing in securities, the agency should tell them which ones they are dealing in.
Roisman and Peirce also stated that the SEC’s inability to develop investor guidelines in the digital asset market encourages fraudsters and restricts law-abiding investors.
“Over the next several weeks, I remain committed to working with my fellow Commissioners and the SEC’s incredible staff to further our mission of protecting investors, maintaining fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitating capital formation,” Roisman stated in his departure announcement.
Just two weeks back, Six CEOs of major cryptocurrency companies appeared before the House Financial Services Committee, all urging Congress to develop a clear legal framework for the cryptocurrency.
