SEC invites former enforcement targets Coinbase and Uniswap to regulatory panel

Executives of publicly listed crypto exchange Coinbase and decentralized exchange Uniswap will be panelists at the US Securities and Exchange Commission crypto roundtable. The regulator disclosed this in an announcement outlining the agenda and panelists for the event.

According to the announcement, Uniswap chief legal officer Katherine Minarik and vice president of institutional product at Coinbase Gregor Tusar will participate in a roundtable titled Between a Block and a Hard Place: Tailoring Regulation for Crypto Trading. 

The roundtable panel focuses on crypto trading and includes Cumberland DRW general counsel Chelsea Pizzola. Other executives taking part in the panel include FalconX head of business and revenue Austin Reid and Urvin Finance co-founder Richard Johnson. The Chief product officer at the New York Stock Exchange, Jon Herrick, is also involved, as is Texture Capital CEO Richard Johnson, the finance and accounting chair at the University of California, Christine Parlour, and the president of Healthy Markets Association.

Roundtable invitees used to be regulatory targets

The upcoming event scheduled for April 11 is the second crypto roundtable by the SEC Crypto Taskforce since Mark Uyeda was appointed as the acting chair and President Donald Trump was sworn in.

The discussions, which focus on getting regulatory clarity for the industry, will be five events that touch on various aspects of the industry. The first focused broadly on crypto legal status, and the next three focused on tokenization, custody, and decentralized finance.

Interestingly, the three core crypto companies invited to the panel have all had brushes with the SEC before now. The regulator under Gary Gensler sued both Coinbase and Cumberland DRW while also opening an investigation into Uniswap. The regulator has since dropped all the enforcement actions and investigations as part of its new approach to regulating the industry.

SEC under Trump continues to live up to promises

The SEC’s decision to invite Coinbase and other crypto companies to the panel highlights how different the SEC is under Trump compared to the Biden administration. This is in line with President Trump’s promises to enable the crypto industry’s growth under his administration.

Although the Senate has not confirmed Trump’s nominee for the SEC chair, Paul Atkins, the regulator under acting chair Mark Uyeda, has made several moves to deregulate the industry. These include dropping lawsuits and investigations against crypto entities, which shows its intention to adopt regulation through dialogue rather than enforcement.

The SEC has also issued several statements clarifying the status of some crypto assets, including directives that stablecoins and memecoins are not securities.

Commissioner Hester Pierce, who leads the Crypto Taskforce, said:

“Hearing the public’s concerns and suggestions helps the SEC create a clear, sensible, and fair path forward for the crypto industry. I look forward to this roundtable and the rest of the series as we move toward crypto clarity for the benefit of the American public.”

Despite the moves, the crypto market has continued to struggle. This is mostly due to the escalation of the trade wars between the US and other countries, causing a global uncertainty that has crushed almost all sectors, from crypto to stocks.

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