User-d8250 tomas

#ProjectCrypto Good afternoon. Thank you, Norm, for your kind introduction and the invitation to be here. It gives me great pleasure to be with you all, particularly at what I believe is a defining moment for American leadership in the crypto asset markets. Before I share a few reflections, I want to thank the America First Policy Institute for convening such a timely conversation. And, I must note, in order to keep my compliance folks happy, that the views I express here today are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of the SEC as an institution or of the other Commissioners.

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Today, I would like to discuss what Commissioner Hester Peirce and I are calling “Project Crypto,” which will be the SEC’s north star in aiding President Trump in his historic efforts to make America the “crypto capital of the world.”[1] But before I discuss our plan for crypto market primacy, let me take a few moments to revisit some inflection points in the history of our financial markets that bear similarities to the one we are at now, so that the future we shape is worthy of the legacy that we inherit.

Evolution of Capital Markets: From Buttonwood to Blockchain

The winds of innovation have always swept through our capital markets, often at gale force. In 1792, they rustled the leaves of a buttonwood tree, beneath which two dozen stockbrokers assembled to establish the forerunner to the New York Stock Exchange. That modest agreement—fewer than a hundred words handwritten on a slip of parchment—set in motion an elegant design that would govern the flow of capital for generations.[2]

In the centuries since, our markets have never stood still. They have expanded, evolved, and reinvented themselves in step with the ideas and technologies of their time. Markets are dynamic because of the people who participate in them. Markets channel human ingenuity toward society’s most intractable problems by rewarding those who develop the most innovative solutions that others value enough to buy. They are the mechanism by which Adam Smith’s invisible hand elevates those who act in the common good—even when pursuing their own.

The SEC’s role is to safeguard markets that allow the spark of human creativity and skill to benefit society. Over the arc of its history, the agency has both enabled innovation and, regrettably at times, stifled it. Fortunately, progress has a way of prevailing. And when our regulatory posture is calibrated to meet innovation with thoughtfulness rather than fear, America’s leadership position has only grown stronger.

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In the 1960s—before my time, I am happy to say—Wall Street was riding a bull market. But behind the scenes, our market machinery was straining to keep up. Most clearing and settlement transactions involved a costly and cumbersome process. Rising stacks of paper stock certificates had to be physically delivered by clerks wheeling carts up and down Wall Street and in other financial districts all across America.[3] It was a scene from another century struggling to meet the demands of the modern securities markets.