Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the United States denied a proposed change of rules by the Winklevoss twins that would have allowed the company Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust listed on the stock exchange and BATS Global Markets BZX Exchange (BZX) . Previously another similar request had been denied in March 2017.
The SEC issued a 92-page disapproval order stating that the decision was not based on "an assessment of whether Bitcoin, or Blockchain technology in general, have utility or value as an innovation or investment," but rather that BZX failed. " demonstrate that your proposal is consistent with the requirements of Section 6 (b) (5) of the Exchange Act. "
According to the press, not all the commissioners agreed with the decision.
SEC commissioner Hester Peirce issued a public statement affirming that the SEC focused "its decision not on the shares of ETP (exchanged product) to be listed on the stock exchange, but on the underlying Bitcoin market."
To access clearer information and hear the opinion of a relevant official within the institution, ETHNews interviewed Commissioner Pierce in previous days.
In that meeting, Commissioner Peirce talks about her dissenting opinion on the decision made by the SEC.
ETHNews : Why do you think the SEC approach was in the Bitcoin spot market instead of the BZX capabilities?
Hester Peirce : I think one of the reasons is that in the past, with other applications for commodities the SEC also looked at the underlying markets. I would say that this was not the right approach when looking at those products. Of course, that was before my time here. But, in addition, I think there is concern about new technologies, and I think part of that is reflected in the disapproval order.
ETHNews : According to your statement of disagreement, you seem to feel that the Winklevoss proposal was treated unfairly and analyzed differently from other proposals. Do you feel that this is due specifically to the volatility and uncertainty associated with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, or do you see another reason?
Hester Peirce : I think I take a different reading of the legal mandate than my colleagues, so that would affect the way I would consider any of these things, and I think it would afflict the way they would consider any of these aspects. Part of his order was to analyze the potential for manipulation in the Bitcoin market, and I think he played a pretty important role, at least while reading it, in his order.
ETHNews : What are your views on Ripple and XRP?
Hester Peirce : I would prefer not to comment on any particular technology. The point I was trying to make in my disagreement was: "Look, it's not me who should decide which technology succeeds and which one fails."
I want to make sure that investors reach that decision and that they have the information to the extent they want to access it through our stock markets.
ETHNews: In your opinion, why do you think the SEC has the perception that they are the guardians of the new technologies?
Hester Peirce : I think historically, the SEC has not been especially good at welcoming innovation. This is a problem in many government agencies because it is much safer to say: "Slow down, we want to put a brake here", because it is really difficult to measure lost opportunities, but it is much easier to measure when there is a problem.
If we had to approve something like this and there was a problem, people would go back and say, "Hey, you should not have approved that," so it's always safer to say no. We need to find a way to give permission to government agencies, including the SEC, to say: "No. We're going to let the innovation move forward. "
When there is a problem, we will not blame the agency for the problem. Let's say: "You know what? When we progress in society, when we innovate, sometimes some bad things happen, and we try to minimize the bad things and maximize the good things, but we can not move forward without some things happening that may not have been anticipated. "
ETHNews : You have a kind of cult followers on reddit and Twitter. How do you feel about being seen as the cryptographic champion of the SEC?
Hester Peirce : What I am trying to defend is that we have a country full of people who have fascinating ideas and who are really looking for ways to change the world. I love the idea that part of the SEC's mission is to make sure our capital markets work well so that people who have great ideas can find other people to fund those great ideas.
I like the image of being the champion of our capital markets that work well for old and new technologies, and for people with new ideas. For me, the exciting thing is all these people who have really looked at the world and thought of a new way of doing things, and I just want to make sure that we, as an agency, are not interfering in the way of that.
conclusion
It is possible that the Winklevoss ETF has been demolished, but not all hopes have been lost. It is possible that Commissioner Peirce's efforts will eventually lead to the fact that products related to cryptocurrencies are evaluated according to their merits and adherence to the established regulations of the SEC, instead of the underlying markets. The battle is far from over.
It is quite admirable that the commissioner has decided to declare to the press her disagreement with the decisions of the institution, especially because she is a member of the entity.
The most redeeming of his position is the fact that regulatory bodies must be there to support and not to interfere with innovation. We know that it is difficult to please everyone, especially if an incident occurs, but you should always watch over the development in the same way you do with security.
Source: ETHNews