Peirce pointed out that while “there have been calls for clarity for some time, a new administration brings the chance to take a fresh look, but it also is a moment where it seems others in the marketplace are also taking a fresh look.”
If appointed, his tenure at the SEC would likely be considerably different than Jay Clayton’s, whose legacy has been tainted by a considerable lack of regulatory certainty surrounding digital assets—much to the exasperation of the cryptocurrency innovators and investors, as well as some regulators like SEC Commissioner Hester “Crypto Mom” Peirce.
That means Roisman is unlikely to make any big, precedent-setting decisions, like approving a Bitcoin exchange traded fund (ETF). Clayton was a strong opponent of crypto ETFs, arguing that price manipulation and fraud remains rampant.
Saying that it “recognizes that the market for digital asset securities is still new and rapidly evolving,” the agency noted that the enforcement holiday is specifically for digital assets— or security tokens—that qualify as securities regulated by the SEC.
