Commissioner @HesterPeirce's Statement on Today's @SECGov Innovation Exemption Order is one of the best characterizations of DeFi we've ever seen. "What does the order not do? This order is not about decentralized finance. Truly decentralized systems that are driven by automated software do not give rise to the foundational concerns underlying securities regulation, namely that an intermediary you trust to act on your behalf will be foolish, careless, or compromised. An investor does not need an exemption to avail herself of permissionless smart contracts that mediate peer-to-peer trading." Thank you, Commissioner Peirce, for your tireless leadership defending the values that matter to builders of blockchain technology and DeFi systems.

The opening line of this op-ed: “Congress often passes legislation riddled with policy land mines because the Members don’t want to do the hard work of defusing them.” WSJ notes the bill has promise (regulatory clarity, customer protections etc) and then dives into the problems

More than a year ago, the House passed the Clarity Act. There’s been progress since — thousands of hours of bipartisan negotiations took place at the staff and Member levels. The Senate Committees on Banking and Agriculture advanced their respective titles. And Senate Republicans produced a floor-ready product that, as I type this, is waiting for a vote. It’s disappointing — but not surprising — that Senate Democrats are choosing politics on the cusp of a major victory for American leadership. Find another instance in history where Congress, when given the choice, opted to push an industry out of the United States rather than smartly regulate it. American Exceptionalism was once a bipartisan goal; if Clarity fails, I have serious doubts. These same Democrats — many of whom have taken millions of dollars from the crypto industry — proclaim that Clarity lacks safeguards for consumers and falls short in countering illicit finance. Nothing could be further from the truth. Titles II and III materially uplift regulatory and compliance obligations for digital asset intermediaries, placing them on similar footing with traditional financial institutions. The Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act — which Washington lobbyists have spun up as a boogeyman for certain groups of prosecutors and law enforcement — does nothing other than codify longstanding Treasury Department policy that’s remained consistent across Administrations: non-custodial builders and developers are not, and have never been, subject to registration obligations under the Bank Secrecy Act. And at this point, major law enforcement trades that once opposed the bill, including the Fraternal Order of Police, have now endorsed it. The Senate needs to vote NOW on this landmark legislation. The truth is that Senate Democrats are afraid to advance the Clarity Act as they fear Senator Warren and the “Anti-Crypto Army” she once promised to build. In the days ahead, Leader Thune will put this theory to the test. Will Senate Democrats be on the side of American Exceptionalism, or will they opt to cede American leadership of a global industry for fear of the bespectacled squirrel’s Left flank? America will lead or America won’t. It’s not more complicated than that. I believe Satoshi once said it best: “If you don’t believe me or don’t get it, I don’t have time to try to convince you, sorry.”

Calling this the “culmination of productive negotiations” with the White House and Treasury is like saying Maduro’s removal from Venezuela was the culmination of productive negotiations with the U.S. government. We have made our position abundantly clear to Senator Cortez-Masto for weeks. This is not even close.