Hard to pick only a few favorite lines from this speech on privacy and technology by @HesterPeirce but these feel particularly relevant:
“Too often, though, the discourse in [D.C.] about privacy casts anyone who demands it in a negative light. I have watched in troubled amazement as the goal of facilitating government surveillance drives regulatory decisions and expectations about how products and services should be built. The legitimate needs of people for products that protect their privacy take a backseat.
Empowering government to be able to identify, pursue, and punish the bad guys is important to the security of the nation and its people, but so too is empowering people to protect information about their lives, including their financial lives...
I urge us as a society to view technologies as an opportunity to increase people’s ability to protect themselves from bad actors, not as an opportunity for the government to watch more of what its citizens do. These new technologies should be an opportunity for us to refocus government surveillance on bad actors and activities that are most likely to be nefarious and away from the everyday actions of innocent people.”
https://t.co/4P2JpobLiJ
HAPPENING NOW: Chairman @Rep_Davidson convenes the Subcommittee on National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Financial Institutions hearing entitled: "Modernizing the BSA for Financial Crime in the 21st Century."
Tune in https://t.co/HoOGTY53qi
During the years of debanking, regulation by enforcement, and prosecution of software developers under the prior administration, @HesterPeirce gave innovators, builders, and entrepreneurs hope for a better future in America through dozens of thoughtful and articulate dissents and speeches.
Her tireless work leading the @SECGov Crypto Task Force over the past year and a half established a new foundation of clear rules and safeguards for innovators in the US.
America would not be the crypto capital of the world today if not for her leadership.
Clarity Act Title III ("Responsible Innovation in Decentralized Finance") was added to the Clarity Act to address concerns related to illicit finance and digital assets. It did not exist in the September draft. It was specifically added in response to concerns raised by prosecutors/law enforcement, to provide even more tools than were already in Title II ("Protecting Against Illicit Finance").
Anyone saying this bill does not give enough tools or runway for law enforcement to go after bad actors should *actually read* read Title II or Title III.
The @AARP comes out in support of crypto market structure bill.
In a letter, says the bill “takes a critical
step toward protecting older Americans from one of the fastest-growing and most devastating fraud vectors in the country today.”
🚨 The banking cartel is in full panic mode. 🚨
While Americans were celebrating Mother’s Day with their families, the CEO of the American Bankers Association sent a frantic alert to every bank CEO in the country, demanding “immediate engagement” to lobby Senators and kill stablecoins that would finally let everyday Americans earn real yields on their own money.
This line in the letter sticks out: “we believe committee members may not be fully aware of the risks to the economy by the stablecoin loophole.” That’s both intellectually dishonest and simultaneously demeaning. First, there is no “loophole.” This entire issue was litigated during the GENIUS Act debate. @BillHagertyTN worked tirelessly on this issue and this statement is an insult to his and others work.
For decades, these banks have treated your deposits like their personal piggy bank, paying you next to nothing while lending YOUR money out for massive profits and executive bonuses.
During the Biden era, these same banks worked hand-in-glove with @SenWarren and her allies to debank Americans, including President Trump’s own family. They shut down accounts of conservatives, patriots, and anyone who dared challenge the regime, all while regulators applied pressure under schemes like Operation Choke Point 2.0. It wasn’t about risk. It was about political control.
Now that innovative stablecoins threaten to break their monopoly and give you actual financial freedom? They’re running to Congress again, screaming about “threats to economic growth and financial stability.”
Translation: Protect the racket at all costs.
The Senate Banking Committee votes on landmark crypto legislation this Thursday.
As a member of that committee, my message is clear:
Hands off the people’s money. Let Americans choose real competition and better returns. No more shielding Wall Street from the future. The banking elite’s days of rigging the system and debanking their political enemies are over. Innovation, freedom, and the American people will win.
I’m voting to break the cartel.
I was in the meetings @PatrickJWitt organized where our industry negotiated in good faith to reach a compromise.
At this point, it’s fair to ask whether those negotiations were ever being approached in good faith on the other side. This debate has already been opened, debated, and settled.
It’s time to move forward and make America the crypto capital of the world.
SEC Commissioner @HesterPeirce:
I do not celebrate everything that is going on in the markets now. Financial products that fan a momentary hope of great riches in the same way lottery tickets do are dull and uninteresting to me. I expect that some of these novelties will fade away as investors lose interest, and their legal, technological, and market infrastructure will be repurposed for more durable investment and risk management products.
The financial markets innovations that give me an adrenaline rush are those that help capital markets fulfill their core objective of serving investors, entrepreneurs, growing companies, the economy, and society at large. I love seeing new products and services that enable people to build resilient investment portfolios to provide security for them and their families. Another favorite is innovative products and services that make it easy and fun for retail investors to understand their investments and the associated expenses. I welcome market developments that facilitate the matching of people with great ideas and promising companies with investors—including people who come from different backgrounds, geographies, and social circles than the entrepreneurs. I champion innovations that enable investors to buy or sell when they want to with low transaction costs. These aspects of the capital markets drew me to this job and remain the ones that inspire me still to be here eight years later.
- May 8, 2026
As markets move onchain, it's time to work on definitions of key terms like broker, dealer, exchange, and clearing agency. Today's speech by Chairman Atkins: https://t.co/Tf74YlS0pq
Excited to join Bitcoin 2026 to talk about the future regulatory landscape for digital assets.
Tune into my fireside chat with @PerianneDC at 2:20pm ET! ⬇️
“i’m sorry that your warrantless surveillance regime was built on the assumption that people would always need intermediaries to transact” — unattributed
report by @valkenburgh & @LazPieper