Partner Erin Martin was quoted in a CoinDesk article about the increased level of federal government activity related to crypto, with Erin telling the publication that it represents a “very clear crypto mandate,” noting the many crypto task forces operating at multiple levels of government, including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a new crypto caucus in Congress, and a multi-agency group working across the administration.
She also discussed how the absence of active federal guidance on crypto creates “an area of uncertainty” for the industry, but she sees the SEC’s more open stance as a return to “normal operations” in which the agency is willing to have conversations with the firms it is overseeing. She added that she hopes an upcoming SEC roundtable would get into “the tensions at play between the application of the federal securities laws on the industry and how we can make it workable,” with the fundamental question being, “What makes a crypto asset a security?”