The U.S. Securities and Trade Fee will host one other crypto regulation roundtable on April 11, attracting participation from executives and advocates who beforehand clashed with the company.
The session, titled Between a Block and a Arduous Place: Tailoring Regulation for Crypto Buying and selling, might be hosted on the SEC’s Washington D.C. headquarters and live-streamed by way of its web site.
Its panel composition indicators a shift within the Fee’s technique beneath Appearing Chairman Mark Uyeda and Commissioner Hester Peirce’s Crypto Activity Pressure, in search of perception from corporations as soon as in regulatory crosshairs.
The roundtable will function senior representatives from Uniswap Labs, Coinbase, Cumberland DRW, and Texture Capital, alongside monetary lecturers and market infrastructure veterans. Many attendees characterize corporations or positions which have been concerned in open disputes or enforcement actions with the SEC, showcasing the intentional recalibration of dialogue channels between the company and the digital asset sector.
Authorized Combatants Recast as Advisors
Among the many most high-profile inclusions is Katherine Minarik, Chief Authorized Officer at Uniswap Labs. Her firm acquired a Wells Discover in 2024 for allegedly working an unregistered trade and dealer platform. Earlier than becoming a member of Uniswap, Minarik led litigation at Coinbase throughout its protracted battle with the SEC, which included an enforcement swimsuit and investigatory probes.
The SEC has since dropped its case towards Coinbase and closed its inquiry into Uniswap, probably reflecting a strategic pivot towards engagement over litigation.
Equally, Chelsea Pizzola, Affiliate Basic Counsel at Cumberland DRW, brings a background marked by enforcement rigidity. In October 2024, her agency confronted an SEC lawsuit for executing billions in crypto trades allegedly with out acceptable registration.
DRW has a monitor file of difficult regulatory boundaries, together with a profitable authorized contest towards the CFTC throughout Gary Gensler’s tenure. Pizzola has publicly described the agency’s failed makes an attempt to register its crypto broker-dealer, underlining the unresolved frictions that now body her function on the panel.
Greg Tusar, Coinbase’s Vice President of Institutional Product, may also seem, representing one other agency previously beneath SEC scrutiny. Coinbase had been one of the crucial distinguished targets of “regulation by enforcement” techniques, a mannequin now beneath reconsideration.
Skilled Witnesses with Contested Histories
The roundtable may also function Christine Parlour of UC Berkeley, a frequent tutorial contributor to DeFi discourse. Parlour’s prior try to function an knowledgeable witness in a crypto-related courtroom continuing was rebuffed by the courtroom, which cited the potential to mislead jurors and an absence of methodological rigor. Regardless of this, she now joins a vital regulatory roundtable as a visitor of the SEC.
Dave Lauer, Co-Founding father of Urvin Finance and We the Buyers, equally has a contested file. Trade operators have questioned his credibility as an knowledgeable witness in high-frequency buying and selling litigation, critiquing his evaluation’s foundational assumptions and sourcing.
However, Lauer’s grassroots advocacy and prior testimony earlier than the Senate Banking Committee give him standing in regulatory conversations, significantly relating to market equity and transparency.
Regulatory Context Indicators Coverage Shift
The panelist choice coincides with the broader motion away from punitive enforcement and towards participatory regulation.
Latest SEC selections to terminate actions towards corporations like Robinhood and Coinbase could also be affirmation that the period of enforcement-led crypto oversight is waning. Paul Atkins, a former SEC Commissioner now nominated to return as Chairman, has advocated for pragmatic regulatory frameworks that make clear compliance expectations quite than impose retroactive penalties.
Commissioner Peirce’s Crypto Activity Pressure has positioned the roundtable sequence as a mechanism to collect stakeholder suggestions and discover nuanced approaches to rulemaking. The present session, one among a number of deliberate, represents a litmus check for whether or not the Fee is ready to contain beforehand adversarial voices in designing the subsequent iteration of crypto governance.
Nicholas Losurdo, a former SEC advisor and now a associate at Goodwin Procter LLP, will reasonable the dialogue. Losurdo’s function in bridging regulatory and business views might mirror the supposed tone of the gathering: adversaries turned advisors, shaping a framework that will in the end outline the SEC’s future posture towards digital property.
