Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. We welcome our TV
Speaker 1: and radio audiences worldwide. The US government has begun distributing
Speaker 1: economic data on public blockchains, marking the latest Trump administration
Speaker 1: endorsement of the crypto industry. The move creates another avenue
Speaker 1: for publishing the GDP data. According to the Commerce Department officials,
Speaker 1: we're here to discuss really the regulatory changes affecting the
Speaker 1: crypto industry after the crackdown of the Biden years. Is
Speaker 1: SEC Commissioner Mark Yuada. We welcome you to radio and TV.
Speaker 1: And just recently Project Crypto was launched, and this really
Speaker 1: sort of endorses the initiative to modernize regulation to make
Speaker 1: it fit for purpose for current innovations within decentralized finance.
Speaker 1: Are we getting enough clarity? How quickly might we know
Speaker 1: what tokens of securities? For example?
Speaker 2: We have a lot of ground to catch up.
Speaker 3: The last four years in the Biden administration, we saw
Speaker 3: a lot of efforts to suppress crypto, at.
Speaker 2: Least in the United States.
Speaker 3: That was one of the things that President did, I
Speaker 3: think was the third David As administration Chaerman twenty third win.
Speaker 3: He issued that executive order with a clear goal. We
Speaker 3: need to make the United States one of the global
Speaker 3: leaders in innovation in crypto and digital assets. That was why,
Speaker 3: you know, one of the things I did immediately upon
Speaker 3: becoming the acting chairman was to name one of my
Speaker 3: fellow commissioners, Hester Perce, who spent an awful lot of time.
Speaker 2: Talking to the crypto community.
Speaker 3: You're going to be in charge of our efforts, leader
Speaker 3: of our Crypto Task Force, and that now under our
Speaker 3: new chairman Paul Atkins, has now pivoted into what we
Speaker 3: call Project Crypto. We are working side by side with
Speaker 3: our colleagues at the CFTC. They announced what they call Cryptosprint,
Speaker 3: So we're really anxious to get some things done.
Speaker 1: In terms of getting things done, there is a sort
Speaker 1: of favorite pitch of innovation going on, and a lot
Speaker 1: of that is to do with perhaps adoption of new
Speaker 1: ETFs around things I'm interested in for companies tricycle, treasury companies,
Speaker 1: companies that are building up crypto their assets, or indeed
Speaker 1: new etf springing up. Are you comfortable with the pace
Speaker 1: of innovation as it is? Are we going far as
Speaker 1: fast or too fast from your perspective, Well, they.
Speaker 3: Are part of the innovation equation, so to speak. But
Speaker 3: they're just only a part of it. We've got a
Speaker 3: lot more to do, you know, with these companies. The
Speaker 3: SEC and it's ninety years of existence, has always been
Speaker 3: a disclosure oriented regulator. That means we don't we're not
Speaker 3: supposed to put our thumb on the scale of whether
Speaker 3: an investment is good or bad. What our concern is
Speaker 3: is whether or not you're telling the truth when you
Speaker 3: market and provide the disclosures with respect to these products.
Speaker 3: So they can put crypto in their treasury. They need
Speaker 3: to disclose that, they need disclose the risks about that,
Speaker 3: they need disclose what their intense intentions are is in
Speaker 3: accordance with our rules and regulations.
Speaker 2: But there's so much more that we need to do. Well.
Speaker 1: Important for those companies that are looking to be treasury companies,
Speaker 1: or those that want to put Salant for example, or
Speaker 1: XRP or even dogecoin in an ETF, how soon will
Speaker 1: they know whether those tokens are indeed deemed securities or not.
Speaker 3: Well, we've already put out eight number of statements from
Speaker 3: our staff in the Division Corporation Finance which says some
Speaker 3: things are not securities. Now we are working on as chairman,
Speaker 3: Akins said as part of his project Crypto Kickoff to
Speaker 3: provide some commission level guidance. What is and is not
Speaker 3: a security when it comes to crypto. It is tied
Speaker 3: up in a decade's old Supreme Court decision called Howie
Speaker 3: sec versus Howie as So whether or not it's us
Speaker 3: an investment contract, the good news is that it is.
Speaker 2: What I do as a principles based test.
Speaker 3: Is it an investment of money in a common enterprise
Speaker 3: with the expectation of profits from the efforts of others.
Speaker 3: How do you apply that in the crypto space. That's
Speaker 3: what we're looking to do in the next month. Can't
Speaker 3: talk about timing, but what I can say is this
Speaker 3: has been part of the Crypto Asks Forces efforts from
Speaker 3: day one this year. Is you know, we took a
Speaker 3: position which I objected to. I put out many descents
Speaker 3: objecting to it, with this idea that every crypto with
Speaker 3: exception of Bitcoin, which is what our former chairman Gary
Speaker 3: Gensler testified before Congress, was a security. No, we have
Speaker 3: this whole framework, we weren't applying it properly. We said
Speaker 3: we're going to do this. That was what the crypto
Speaker 3: tasks we started doing. That's why they held this series
Speaker 3: of roundtables. In fact, that was the very first roundtable
Speaker 3: was talking about what ought to be in and outside the.
Speaker 2: Scope of this.
Speaker 1: We're speaking of Marcubator, Commissioner for the United States Securities
Speaker 1: and Exchange Commission. I'm interested. Previously it was sort of
Speaker 1: regulation by enforcement, and you said you don't want to
Speaker 1: put your funb on the scale in this way. But
Speaker 1: how many crypto enforcements are ongoing at the moment? Can
Speaker 1: you tell us in terms of the amount of investigation
Speaker 1: still going. I know that for example, you unicoin is
Speaker 1: being sued for example, and that happened in May.
Speaker 3: We have a number of ongoing investigations and actions related
Speaker 3: that would say our cryptoc crypto related.
Speaker 2: We have an awful lot of what one.
Speaker 3: Might call fake crypto, which is somebody who purports to
Speaker 3: be involved in crypto, but it is nothing more than
Speaker 3: the types of Ponzi schemes and other scams that we
Speaker 3: have seen since probably the creation of currency.
Speaker 1: How many staffers are looking at forcement now compared to
Speaker 1: the prior four years.
Speaker 3: Well, what we've done is we still have a unit,
Speaker 3: although we've changed it from the cyber in Crypto unit
Speaker 3: to be more broadly focused on technology.
Speaker 2: We have an enormous number of tips.
Speaker 3: Complaints, and referrals that come into the agency every year.
Speaker 3: In fact, I think we're on track from nearly forty
Speaker 3: five thousand. A number of them relate to crypto. So
Speaker 3: we deploy it staff appropriately.
Speaker 1: And you said you're working in lockstep almost with the CFTC.
Speaker 1: How is that relationship going at the moment.
Speaker 3: We've got a great relationship and it's one of the
Speaker 3: things that was very important on the financial regulatory front,
Speaker 3: not only between US and the CFTC, but US with
Speaker 3: Treasury and the banking regulators about how to address crypto.
Speaker 3: You saw this with the President's Working Group on Digital Assets.
Speaker 3: They issue the report last month. This has been something
Speaker 3: that has been I think really all of the relevant
Speaker 3: regulators in the executive brand char all communicating with each
Speaker 3: other and all coordinating with each other to make sure
Speaker 3: that we can make this effort successful.
Speaker 1: Now the SEC does more than just look at crypto,
Speaker 1: and I'm interested in At the moment, you're currently suing
Speaker 1: En on Musk and that's to do with alleged violation
Speaker 1: of securities law. About when he was taking a significant
Speaker 1: chunk in Twitter, he had owned about five percent in
Speaker 1: excess of and he was meant to make that declaration.
Speaker 1: Many would say he didn't do it quickly enough. He
Speaker 1: wants that suit dropped. Should it be dropped?
Speaker 3: Well, I'm not going to comment on a particular investigation
Speaker 3: or enforcement action that we currently have, but what I
Speaker 3: will say is, you know we have these scheduled thirteen
Speaker 3: D and thirteen G requirements out there. One of the
Speaker 3: key parts about whether or not you can file on
Speaker 3: a thirteen G is whether or not you are a
Speaker 3: passive investor. And one of the things that we did
Speaker 3: take action is and there are a large number of
Speaker 3: very influential asset managers that hold significant chunks well above
Speaker 3: five percent of a company stock. Question is what sort
Speaker 3: of relationship should they be having that requires additional disclosure
Speaker 3: if they're asking or directing the company and says you
Speaker 3: need to do the following things. For instance, on climate change,
Speaker 3: you need to hit net zero goals. You need to
Speaker 3: have a plan of how you get to net zero.
Speaker 3: You're no longer a passive investor that requires additional disclosures
Speaker 3: of some form because we have concerns whenever they're or
Speaker 3: at least just say, Congress pass laws telling that we
Speaker 3: have really large shareholders more than five percent, which perhaps
Speaker 3: doesn't sound a lot, but in the real world that
Speaker 3: is quite a bit for a company that they need
Speaker 3: to provide the appropriate levels of transparencies of their discussions
Speaker 3: with company.
Speaker 1: We'll plenty more on your agenda other than just the
Speaker 1: long case and indeed just crypto. It's been wonderful having
Speaker 1: some time with you. Let you get back to the
Speaker 1: day job. Mark Vada, of course, Commissioner for the United
Speaker 1: States Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC