Fireside Chat with SEC Commissioner

On June 6, 2025 at 11:00 am eastern, I was lucky enough to virtually join a fireside chat with SEC Commissioner Hester Pierce, moderated by Joyce Lai and Thania Charmani, and hosted by Real Mama’s of Crypto. Here’s my notes.

Some things the SEC is focusing on:

• Control vs decentralization
• Control diffusion vs progressive decentralization
• Fraud, and welcomes tips on bad actors
• Control and information asymmetry 
• Capital formation, specifically how small businesses raise capital
• Why don’t bigger companies go public anymore?
• Custody & control

Some things the commissioner is concerned about:

• Previous SEC regulations caused information asymmetry, because people were too scared to even share information with shareholders
• If Congress doesn’t step up, then there won’t be a framework for crypto, and legislation about crypto is so hard to write.
• Best to avoid regulating developers and front ends
• SEC needs to update their communications and documentation, because things change over time
• SEC needs to use the best tools for the right issue
• SEC needs to do better at making the rules more clear and less ambiguous 
• Competitive market > big banks win again

Some things the commissioner is looking forward to:

• So many people in the crypto industry want to try new things
• If the US regulates crypto well, then other regimes will use similar regulations and regimes can mutually recognize each other
• Sandbox with other jurisdictions 
• Safe harbor could help projects prove they’re not fraud, and also not planning on going public
• Projects that are better decentralized are able to do that, and don’t use decentralization to avoid responsibility 
• Allow some people to choose to use the tech directly, without intermediaries, and others to use centralized services that are regulated

Advice from the commissioner:

• Build things that are so important that no industry will want to shut it down
• Communicate with the SEC, because there is a short window of time to make updates
• Securities markets are international, so SEC can respond to crypto being international
• Use crypto and blockchain as a tool, so protect the customer and use the best tool