Does SEC’s enforcement chief’s resignation signal an end of the ‘war on crypto’?
- SEC’s enforcement chief David Hirsch’s resignation attracted divergent reactions A market commentator viewed the departure as a signal to change the SEC’s power in the sector.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) crypto enforcement chief has resigned, attracting some of the wildest reactions in the community.
Penning his resignation on LinkedIn, the executive noted,
“This past Friday was my last day with the SEC after almost 9 years. During that time, I had the opportunity to work on more complex, challenging investigations and issues than I ever imagined when I joined the agency as a staff attorney in the Fort Worth Regional Office.”
According to his LinkedIn profile, Hirsch was the chief of the SEC’s Enforcement Division’s Crypto Asset and Cyber unit.
Given his nearly 10-year stint at the agency, market observers were convinced he was involved in every crypto enforcement action, past and present.
Crypto community reactions
One user, Viktor Bunin, protocol specialist at Coinbase, urged the industry not to hire Hirsch for his past actions on the community. Bunin nudged,
‘The SEC’s leadership and crypto enforcement team has shown a total lack of integrity, a disregard for due process and the law, and a commitment to do the wrong thing at every turn. We must not reward this behavior.’
However, Solana’s [SOL] memecoin launch platform, pump.fun, took the joke a notch higher with Hirsch’s resignation.
The platform cheekily claimed that they had poached the enforcement watchdog. Part of its statement read,
“David came to the realization that his work as a regulator was no longer fulfilling. He had to start a new chapter…A memelord at heart, David will be in charge of pump dot fun’s new internal trading desk.”
However, the statement was meant for entertainment purposes and, to an extent, to farm engagement.
Nonetheless, David Hirsch hasn’t joined the pump.fun, and confirmed the platform’s statement as false on LinkedIn.
“The claim by Pump.fun is false.’
For his part, Paul Barron, a crypto YouTuber and market commentator, viewed his resignation as a signal of a potential change in the SEC’s power in the sector as regulatory clarity ramps up.
“I do think this is going to play out in the future of digital assets, through real regulation, as it takes that power away from SEC’
Indeed, the infrastructure bill, the FIT21 Act, could cut down some of the SEC’s power on crypto. The Act recently passed the U.S. House of Representatives.
It aims to bestow most of the crypto oversight mandate on the CFTC (Commodity and Futures Trading Commission).
Does Hirsch’s resignation end the SEC’s ‘war on crypto’? Most analysts believe the answer to that question could be clear based on Hirsch’s replacement, which was not made public at press time.
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