SEC crypto task force to host sixth roundtable on financial surveillance and privacy

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s crypto task force is set to host the next roundtable meeting in October to discuss financial surveillance and privacy.

Summary

• SEC crypto task force to hold Oct. 18 roundtable on financial surveillance and privacy.
• Commissioner Hester Peirce said protecting privacy is “critically important” for Americans.

Commissioner Hester Peirce, who heads the crypto task force, stressed the importance of protecting the privacy of Americans in a Sep. 8  notice, adding that technologies that help do so are “critically important,” as they allow individuals to decide how their sensitive information is shared and protected.

“Understanding recent developments in privacy-protecting tools will assist the SEC and other financial regulators as we work on policy solutions in the crypto space,” Perice said.

Her comments come at a time when cases like the one against Tornado Cash, co-founder Roman Storm, have heightened scrutiny of privacy-protecting tools in crypto. Peirce, however, has consistently defended the people’s right to privacy-protecting technologies.

“We should take concrete steps to protect people’s ability not only to communicate privately, but to transfer value privately, as they could have done with physical coins in the days in which the Fourth Amendment was crafted,” she said during her appearance at the Science of Blockchain Conference.

The roundtable has been scheduled for Oct. 18 and will be the sixth roundtable in a series of discussions that began in August, touching upon issues such as market structure, investor protection, and regulatory oversight of digital assets held in Washington.

Peirce has previously said that these meetings are meant to tap into the insights of industry participants and the broader public, making them a key part of how the SEC shapes rules that can realistically work for the crypto sector.

The SEC’s new approach to crypto regulations

Under a pro-crypto administration that is being led by returning President Donald Trump, the commission has taken a softer stance towards cryptocurrencies and related technologies and has moved to ease previously stringent enforcement measures and compliance burdens on U.S.-based crypto firms.

Earlier this month, SEC Chair Paul Atkins unveiled the Commission’s Spring 2025 regulatory agenda, which would task the Commission to target key areas such as issuance, custody, and exchange trading rules and provide clarity on them. 

Recently, the SEC, alongside the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), said that both agencies have begun working to “provide markets the clarity they deserve,” while adding that they want to consider “innovation exemptions” for the decentralized finance space.

The agencies believe such exemptions could eventually permit peer-to-peer trading and other complex market operations under defined guardrails. Both agencies will host a joint roundtable on Sep. 29 to discuss the proposals.

Separately, the SEC, the following day, announced the launch of a new cross-border task force to combat transnational fraud. The task force will investigate offshore companies suspected of violating U.S. securities laws, with an emphasis on market manipulation schemes such as pump-and-dump.