SEC commissioner reminds of ‘the point of crypto’ as market aims for recovery

Hester Peirce, a commissioner on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), says that after a terrible year, industry players need to remember what crypto is really about.

In a speech at the Digital Assets at Duke conference, Peirce laid down some lessons to be learned from the issues that the crypto industry had to face last year. According to the commissioner, 2022 was a “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year” for both the crypto space and regulators. However, Peirce believed there are valuable takeaways from the series of problems that arose last year. She explained:

“Underlying these lessons is the truth that technology takes time to develop and often must combine with innovative developments in other fields to realize its full potential.”

In addition, the SEC commissioner underscored that the industry must always keep in mind that crypto is not about driving the prices up and dumping tokens to someone else. Peirce highlighted that the industry must remember that the underlying technology is about “solving a trust problem” and how people can interact and transact with people they don’t know. She explained that:

“Traditionally, people have looked to centralized intermediaries or government to solve this problem, but technology like cryptography, blockchain and zero-knowledge proofs offer new solutions.”

Apart from this, the commissioner also urged “people who believe in crypto’s future” to not wait for regulators to fix problems but instead act to stamp out harmful practices and encourage good behavior within the industry.

Peirce also said that it’s up to people within the industry to develop crypto’s value. “Crypto’s value proposition depends primarily on the builders of this technology, not on regulators like me, who lack technical expertise and stand on the periphery looking in,” she noted.

Related: Former SEC chief blasts ‘bogus’ catchphrase: ‘Regulation by enforcement’

The last year was filled with challenges for those who believe in the space. Despite the catastrophes, there are still some good accomplishments for the space like its display of resilience against market challenges that somehow sets the stage for a stronger foundation.