The Securities and Exchange Commission is starting a cryptocurrency-focused task force to come up with ways to regulate the market, in one of the first moves by the agency after the resignation of the crypto skeptic Gary Gensler.
The SEC, now helmed by Acting Chair Mark Uyeda, said the task force will be dedicated to coming up with a "comprehensive and clear" regulatory framework for crypto assets. It will be led by SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, who has been nicknamed "Crypto Mom" by the industry for her dissents against SEC enforcement actions on crypto companies.
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Crypto companies criticized the SEC under Gensler as regulating the industry by enforcement instead of laying out clear rules of the road so companies could comply with securities laws. Gensler left his role as SEC chair on Monday.
"The result has been confusion about what is legal, which creates an environment hostile to innovation and conducive to fraud. The SEC can do better," the agency said in a statement.
The group will coordinate with Congress as well as other federal departments and agencies, including the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The SEC and the CFTC have duked it out over the years about which agency should regulate the sector.
President Donald Trump has picked former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins to serve as the agency's chair, but the Senate has yet to schedule a hearing on his nomination.
