Hester Peirce, who led the SEC's Crypto Task Force, is leaving the Commission
Victoria Shinder2 min readHester Peirce is leaving the US Securities and Exchange Commission. A joint statement by Chairman Paul Atkins and Commissioner Mark Uyeda on 1 October marked her departure after what they called two tours at the agency: on the staff from 2000 to 2008, and as a commissioner since 2018.
Why it matters for crypto. Peirce was for years the commissioner most associated with digital assets. The statement credits her with contending for regulatory clarity "long before" it became a priority of the Commission, often as "an army of one", and with challenging regulation by enforcement. That record, it says, earned her the leadership of the SEC's Crypto Task Force. Atkins and Uyeda wrote that the work the Commission carries forward toward a framework for digital assets will "bear the mark of her leadership for years to come".
Her last statements. On the same day, Peirce published a statement on the SEC's proposals to amend custody rules for investment advisers and regulated funds, including how they hold crypto assets, under the title Roller Coaster Ride. A day earlier she spoke at an open meeting on accredited investor notices. The joint statement does not give her last day or name a successor, and the SEC's announcement says nothing about who will take over the Crypto Task Force.
The context. Her departure comes as the Commission is turning crypto policy into rules: the custody proposals it put out on 1 October, on which she commented the same day, are still to be finalised. The statement does not say whether her seat will be filled before then.
What it means
For the crypto industry, the loss is of a voice rather than a vote: the current Commission's majority already shares her direction, as Atkins and Uyeda's statement makes clear. What changes is who leads the Crypto Task Force and who argues for the industry's position inside the Commission when the rules now proposed come up for final votes.