In life, there are times when things are going well in your business affairs but not your personal ones. Other times, the things you are doing and enj
In life, there are times when things are going well in your business affairs but not your personal ones. Other times, the things you are doing and enjoying in your personal life are great but your professional or business matters are suffering. Sometimes, you also don’t realize or understand that the good times you are experiencing will not last forever and may soon end. So, I have always tried to recognize when things are going well, savor and mark the moment, and thank my lucky stars for it. The first week of April was such a time.
Powers On… is a monthly opinion column from Marc Powers, who spent much of his 40-year legal career working with complex securities-related cases in the United States after a stint with the SEC. He is now an adjunct professor at Florida International University College of Law, where he teaches a course on “Blockchain & the Law.”
For those who personally know me or are regular readers of my monthly column, you know I am a securities lawyer who had the privilege of representing clients on some amazing matters, a number of which were high profile. I started my legal career 40 years ago at the United States Securities and Exchange Commission in its Enforcement Division. For the final 20 years of my law firm career, I was a partner at two AMLAW 50 law firms, BakerHostetler and Reed Smith. I moved from Reed Smith to BakerHostetler in 2004 to build and lead a national securities litigation and SEC defense practice. I led that new practice team for over 13 years, and I also built BakerHostetler’s hedge fund industry practice beginning in 2012. In 2017, I turned my professional and personal focus to the exciting world of blockchain and crypto.
Since retiring from law firm practice in December 2020, I haven’t once looked back at my decision to shift my focus toward contributing ideas and leadership to the laws, regulations and other considerations needed to promote the sentiments of altruism and decentralization that Bitcoin and blockchain allow or encourage. Some of the ways I seek to have an impact include writing this monthly column, accepting a position as an adjunct professor of law to teach law students about blockchain, and being an early and active member of Global Digital Finance — an international association of blockchain-based businesses, lawyers and former regulators who regularly meet with government officials worldwide in an effort to standardize global protocols and regulations for blockchain and its financial applications.
SEC Commissioner Peirce’s Q&A with students at FIU
Given my background, I experienced one of the highlights of my career when I had the honor and pleasure of hosting SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, affectionately known as “Crypto Mom,” in the “Blockchain & the Law” class I created and teach at the College of Law at Florida International University in Miami. The commissioner was kind enough to accept my invitation to a fireside chat with me, attended by FIU faculty and students and followed by a Q&A with my law school students.
It was quite a memorable hour, with wide-ranging topics of conversation. Commissioner Peirce was quite open with us in describing her career path to the SEC, acknowledging that early in her legal career, she had no plan to focus on securities laws or regulation. But while serving as the senior counsel to Senator Richard Shelby — formerly the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs — she began formulating ideas about the effects of regulation and how the intended effects of legislation do not always turn out as planned. She crystallized these ideas in her 2012 book, Dodd-Frank: What It Does and Why It’s Flawed.
When asked about her December 2021 public statement with former Commissioner Elad Roisman criticizing SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s proposed agenda to not focus much attention on regulation changes for blockchain technology advancement, Commissioner Peirce was unwilling to criticize his current SEC agenda. Instead, she acknowledged that the SEC has vast areas of jurisdiction, some of which Gensler has chosen to emphasize over blockchain. If Peirce were the SEC’s chair, her priorities would include updating custody, bookkeeping, settlement and clearing operations at financial institutions with new technological improvements that can now accommodate digital assets. She would also focus hearings and proposals on the powers Congress has given the SEC to exempt certain aspects of federal securities laws for digital assets and transactions from compliance, including registration and disclosure requirements.
One of the more interesting, but not surprising, comments by the commissioner was related to crypto exchange-traded funds. On this, she said it was indefensible for the SEC to allow a futures-based ETF but not a spot ETF. Unfortunately, she is alone in that belief, given the current composition of the commission. But the good news is that she confirmed…
cointelegraph.com