United States Securities and Exchange Commissioner Hester Peirce, known among crypto enthusiasts as “Crypto Mom”, is scheduled to end her term in June. Peirce, who has supported failed proposals for an SEC-regulated Bitcoin exchange-traded fund and has championed ways to spur the overall growth of the industry throughout her term, says the crypto space is on track to expand as people’s behaviors shift to an increasing number of virtual and online activities.
Joining a livestream on Tuesday with the Crypto Finance Conference St. Moritz, Commissioner Peirce says that across all industries the Covid-19 pandemic has created seismic transformations and losses that were unimaginable six months ago.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty and uncertainty is not good for any business, and that, I think, includes crypto. That said, I think there is a moment for the industry in that a lot of what the industry does can be done with people — and this is something I said well before Covid – that it can bring together people from across the world and help people work together virtually. They don’t have to be in the same place to be working together. That in itself is an advantage for the industry – that you can continue working.
Now obviously, as with every other industry, we’re finding that this is causing slowdowns, that this is going to cause people in the crypto world to lose their jobs just as it is in other industries, and that’s a sad thing to see.”
Peirce says she has heard that some projects are still sticking to their roadmaps with scheduled launch dates, despite the current economic downturn, and that the industry, regardless of being over 10 years old, is still very much in its infancy.
“We’re seeing more interest coming from institutional quarters than we have in the past. I think that will continue. As people are more comfortable working in a virtual world in every industry now, I think people are likely to turn more interest to the crypto space. And as people are looking to diversify their portfolios, I think people are also likely to look more to the crypto space.”
As for private companies and crypto-based ideas and projects, Peirce says all of the talk surrounding the creation of a digital dollar has spurred overall interest in cryptocurrencies.
“I will say that I think that the idea of a government cryptocurrency, a digital dollar or something like that, is very different than some of the things that we’re talking about with crypto and blockchain and the private sector, but it’s helpful to get people thinking about these things. It’s helpful for people to think about the positives and negatives of having it be a government-issued versus a private-issued currency.”
Peirce adds,
“You need to think about privacy issues if you’re creating some sort of digital currency. I think that’s a really important question for a society to ask because people don’t really feel comfortable with the government or anybody else monitoring their transactions.”
Peirce notes that she can maintain her role as Commissioner until someone fills her seat. Remarking on her departure as the SEC’s biggest crypto fan, Peirce believes it takes a village.
“I think it should be a whole commission full of crypto parents, not just one crypto mom.”
You can check out the full livestream here and Peirce’s recent dissent in support of investors’ access to Bitcoin here.
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