Hey, everybody. Tony here meant the DC Blockchain Summit, and I have
Commissioner hester Purse with me. Commissioner purs, how are you doing, Tony.
It's great to be here and it's been a fun conference so far.
Of course, I want to say that my views are my own views and
not as a commissioner, not necessarily those of the SEC are my filial commissioners.
Well, it's a pleasure to see you in person after we've spoken over
zoom and I'm a big fan of yours and I appreciate all the work you've
been doing, Commissioner Purse. Things are really heating up here in DC around
crypto. I mean, Donald Trump last week said he's endorsing crypto. You
have a couple of bills that are in play, they saw one to one
was repealed in the House. How are you feeling about crypto in general as
it relates to it being in almost all facets of government. Yeah, there
is has been a lot of attention in recent weeks and months on crypto,
and I do it's helpful to see Congress weighing in on some of these issues.
Sure, and uh, you know, I've had concerns around SAB one
twenty one, for example, And it's it's helpful to see that people take
those process considerations seriously. Hester I'm always curious that's the inner workings of things.
So with SAB one to one being were peeled in the house, how
are you and the other folks that guest feeling about that? As an agelist?
Well, I mean I've been feeling bad about SAB one twenty one since
it was adopted is the wrong word, since it was put out on our
website. Right, it's a staff accounting bulletin, as its name suggests,
and so it's not a commissioned document. And when it first came out,
I said, I think this is something we need to get noticed in comment
on. I need to understand how this is going to work. Sure,
since it came out, we've heard lots about the that it doesn't work,
sure, and it keeps people out of the industry and who would otherwise come
into it. So from my perspective, seeing other people share those concerns is
really helpful. But we could you know, SAV one twenty one is still
up on our website, So I guess that's the answer to your question.
Right, Maybe you can take me behind the scenes the logic behind this,
because it seems unreasonable that banks can hold the dollar amount of those crypto acids
while you know, outside the country. Then you know other banks, global
competitors are don't have to do that. What's the logic, especially with a
regulated into me like a maintan Tony. I can't tell you the logic because
I don't understand it. So that's that's the problem. Okay, yeah,
how you got it? And it keeps growing right now it covers broker dealers.
It was about public companies at first, and now it's broader, so
it's broker dealers too, So I really don't understand the logic. Now,
let's talk about the big old meta amazing performance, But it was a fight
to get that approved, and of course it played out into courts. I
would love to get your thoughts on the judges calling the SEC arbitrary and capricious,
and eventually the SCM being forced to approve those uts, and what are
your thoughts on that whole process and how it played out in the courts.
Well, as you know, I would have preferred to see us moving forward
earlier. I had thought that we could have approved it earlier. With the
with the applicants that had come in. Again, each application has to be
judged on the facts and circumstances. But I had written dicent saying we should
have done this earlier. I mean, the fact that it took a court
to weigh in is unfortunate. But the bottom line is the products did get
out there, and that's what matters most. Now it's up to investors to
decide whether they want them or not, and a lot of investors have decided
they did. And again, we're not putting our informatur on any product.
But this is all I want. It is for people to be able to
choose for themselves whether they wanted this product. Absolutely, and I know there's
decisions coming up with you, dear media, for to say anything about that,
I'm not okay. Now, there's some crypto regulation bills, a couple
in the House, one for arche structure, one for staple points. Senator
A. Lummus and Jilli Brand have a version in the Senate. There's a
boat coming up for the one in the House pretty soon. What are your
thoughts do you think that will help saying sec here's your job, here's your
job, and let's move forward. Yeah, I think you're exactly putting your
finger on what would be helpful to have Congress tell us, you know,
whether they want us to be doing a particular piece of this or whether they
want CMDC or potentially another regulator. And so we do answer to Congress.
We're supposed to operate within the bounds that Congress sets for us. And so
I'm always enthusiastic when I see Congress saying, hey, we want to give
you some guidance on where to go. So that's that's how Well, again,
we'll see what happens, and I'm excited to see what this here brings.
Yeah, it's fascinating. I feel like crosst the HASM crypto is very
much an election issue now. There's so many different politicians. Look, I
know the game of politics. There's things that are said to pander to the
industry. But at the same time, I mean, just even like last
week, nothing that I'm supporting Donald Trump with Biden or one or the others,
but the fact that a former president came in and said I use this
stuff, I endorse it. Do you feel that moving forward it will be
easier for everybody to figure this out. In the past, it was hard
because no one was President Trump at one point was saying, I don't I'm
not a fan of this. I don't believe in it. I believe in
the US dollar. But it seems something has changed the narrative. We hit
a tipping point. Are your thoughts well, I mean, I think what
I'm most excited about is the possibility that we can actually get beyond the conversations
about whether we're just going to say no to this whole industry and get to
a place where we say, Okay, what are we actually trying to achieve
here, and how can we do it in a way that maximizes people's liberty
but also enables people to get the kind of information they need and to for
folks in the industry to feel there's a way to be compliant. And so
if we've moved to that place, then I'm happy we're there for sure.
I still, you know, I'm not always super optimistic, because there's a
lot going on that I'm not too happy about as well. But I think
if we can move to that place, that's a good thing. Krishioner.
First, the SEC absolutely has a job. There are bad actors, there's
scammers looking at scamping, I've seen it, But there's great entrepreneurs and innovators
building incredible things. There's companies adopting this technology. And if we could just
have the clarity of the innovators or the entrepreneurs not worried about going to get
a wall's notice to get sued, and then you guys can focus well,
not you specifically, but you know, yes, you can focus on stopping
the scammers because I don't know. Sometimes I get frustrated because I'm like,
Hey, does this scam happening? Why are you setting point based at wall's
notice? So without speaking to any particular enforcement action, I think the point
that you're making is such a good point because I've talked to so many people
who really want to use the technology to do something interesting, to try something
interesting, and they're hanging back because they don't know whether whether it will implicate
the securities laws, and if so, is there a way that they could
do this that would make sense from a commercial standpoint but also from our clients
standpoint. And if we spent more time thinking about that, then we could
concentrate our enforcement resources where they would make the most difference and help the most
people. And that's what you're putting your finger on, and I think that's
really important. Final item here, I don't know much about your tenure as
a commissioner, but if you were teed up to be the chair, would
you accept that position and are you able to? I am very happy in
my role as a commissioner. My term ends next June, and I've had
a tremendous opportunity to work on really interesting issues. I think the most important
thing, the thing that I worry about the most is getting my institution,
the Secure, into a more productive place, and that there's a lot of
work still to be done. I'm hopeful that we can make some progress over
the next year. Well, you have my vote and a lot of other
folks votes to stay and and keep doing the great work. But if you
don't City SEC, what do you think you might do after that? Oh?
This is a job where you can't think about your next job while you're
in this one. So the only thing I have planned is to is to
be my dad's assistant beekeeper. So other than that, I have no plans.
Hester always a pleasure. Thank you so much for taking the time.
Thank you, Tony