The SEC Commissioner, Hester M. Peirce has recently expressed her dissent from the SEC’s (Securities and Exchange Commission) decision to disapprove cryptocurrency ETF. On 27th July 2018, the SEC rejected the appeal of Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.
Almost immediately after the announcement was made, Peirce expressed her dissent in a public statement released on the official website. She believes that the proposed amendment by the Winklevoss twins “satisfies the statutory standard and that we should permit BZX to list and trade this bitcoin-based exchange-traded product.”
The SEC previously stated that its rejection was driven by the will to “protect investors and the public interest,” by preventing crypto-based manipulative and fraudulent acts and practices. However, contrary to the commission’s beliefs, Peirce expressed that such an approach rather “undermines investor protection by precluding greater institutionalization of the bitcoin market.”
Further, the commission pointed out that the exchange does not meet the standards and requirements of certain sections and that the exchange (BZX) does not possess “surveillance-sharing agreements.” With this, Peirce expressed her disagreement by stating that “the rules of the exchange satisfy the Section 6(b)(5) standard.”
“The disapproval order focuses on the characteristics of the spot market for bitcoin, rather than on the ability of BZX—pursuant to its own rules—to surveil trading of and to deter manipulation in the ETP shares listed and traded on BZX,” she further added.
The crypto community has widely applauded her disapproval of the SEC’s decision. Ran Neu-Ner, founder, and CEO of Onchain Capital has interviewed Hester Peirce about the process and possibility of the next crypto ETF approval. She has also been referred to as “crypto mom” by the community.
On 27th July, a Reddit user appreciated the commissioner for her public statement and shared that “she has only 1700 [Twitter] followers. Let’s show her some love from the Crypto Community.” Peirce’s Twitter followers have risen to 16.3K at press time.
