Hester Pierce is an SEC Commissioner and in the past she was called ‘Crypto Mom’ for her non-hostile position on Crypto. She is not a fan of the title and her opinion is the government is not you mommy.
On the 14th of April she released a statement, which frankly made my eyes bug out. In a nutshell it says ‘I dissent.’
The dissent is from the ‘chokepoint 2’ policy that is going on directed by the government towards Crypto.
Here is the link:
https://www.sec.gov/news/statement/peirce-rendering-inovation-2023-04-12
(For you conspiracy theorists check the SEO breaking typo in the link.)
That aside, the contents of this statement are mind blowing.
For background to what the US regulators are doing we need to go back to the Obama era and Operation Choke Point.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Choke_Point
You will see the same game plan is being executed for Crypto. In summary, cut the weed off at the root and it will die and in the case of businesses you don’t like, simply cut them off from banking.
You can clearly understand the strategy and you can see the logic of most of the targets of the original ‘Choke Point’ operation. They are mainly tainted enterprises. But what about fireworks and coin dealers? Anyway you look at it, this initiative was borderline totalitarian.
Now however the game is back on for Crypto.
As such Hester’s position is draw dropping for more than one reason.
An insider has been stirred so much by this developing economic putsch they have put their head on the block.
The statement clearly lays out what is either unintended blundering of huge economic importance or a charted course ahead to drown a kitten in a bucket of regulation and enforcement.
It is obvious to me why it would be extremely hard for any government to support private sector money. On one side the state of government finances is so poorly managed that any competition produces a threat. It’s a shame government is so economically clueless that they haven’t heard of Gresham’s Law (Bad money drives out good) because if the understood that they could happily let Crypto be a giant economic engine flooding their coffers. However government is fear driven.
You can also understand why government would want to stamp out the shoals of predators that have bubbled up alongside the ocean of new assets. It is a horrible situation anyone in Crypto should and probably does abhor. Yet it is just a part of the massive online fraud situation we all face everyday that appears to remain mainly unaddressed and anyone constantly under attack from scammers is right to wonder how much fraud would survive if there were 50% of the cops chasing scammers, hackers and conmen as are hiding behind billboards wait for us to do 5 miles an hour more than the speed limit. As such singling out Crypto as somehow a problem apart, is another example of the self-serving false narratives we have come to despise.
To me this statement tells me Crypto Chokepoint is real, but it also tells me there is hope, because if someone of Hester’s gravitas is prepared to stand up to the luddites, gatekeepers and vested interests, then its not all over yet.