The Senate Banking Committee cleared Hester Peirce’s nomination alongside the nomination of Caroline Crenshaw on Wednesday. Hester Peirce took office in 2018 and was formally nominated for a second term in early June. Peirce’s second term will expire in 2025. The SEC commissioner is likely to continue advancing policy goals that have drawn cheers from the crypto industry, including her advocacy for the approval of a bitcoin ETF. Earlier, the commissioner wrote in a dissenting statement about the agency’s rejection of the United States Bitcoin and Treasury Investment Trust that the SEC’s approach to these bitcoin exchange-traded products is frustrating because it evinces a stubborn stodginess in the face of innovation.
The SEC commissioner is likely to work towards making crypto more legitimate.
Earlier, Hester Peirce had unveiled a safe harbor regulatory proposal for startups that conduct token sales. During her speech at the International Blockchain Congress in Chicago, Peirce said that crypto businesses should have a three-year harbor period from their initial token sales before the SEC determine whether they need to comply with the agency’s securities laws. The SEC chairman Jay Clayton and fellow commissioners Elad Roisman and Allison Herren Lee congratulated Peirce and Crenshaw for their renewed term at the SEC.
“On behalf of our 4,500 dedicated colleagues, we applaud their long-standing commitment to investors and look forward to their continued work to advance the SEC’s vital mission of protecting investors, orderly, maintaining fair, and efficient markets, and facilitating capital formation,” the statement read.
US Representatives urge for a change in policy for taxing digital currency staking rewards.
In a letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, US congressional lawmakers David Schweikert, Bill Foster, Tom Emmer, and Darren Soto set out how current policy is holding back progress in the sector. The US congressional lawmakers explained how taxing staking rewards as income could lead to excessive tax burdens, the lawmakers urged for an alternative approach that supports and encourages innovation.
