The crypto community is quite fond of United States Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) Commissioner Hester Peirce, informally calling her “Crypto Mom” for her pro-Bitcoin and Bitcoin ETF stance. The commissioner has made several statements regarding Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, and they have been very forward thinking — at least compared to other most other regulators and lawmakers.
Peirce was recently interviewed by BreakerMag and the extensive discussion has a lot of really interesting tidbits of information from someone the crypto community has begun to revere. Ever so slightly dismissing the notion of being given the nickname so readily, Peirce said of her nickname, saying “I’m not a mom, [but] it’s always nice to be dubbed Mom.
One would think that a crypto-friendly regulator like Peirce would receive positive messages from the crypto community, but she reveals that some are of a different kind.
When asked what kind of DMs she receives on Twitter, Peirce said that some crypto investors are blaming her for them losing money:
A range of messages, some blaming me for having lost all their money in crypto and some offering to give me their perspectives on what’s going on in crypto. I do prefer if people reach out directly to my office. It’s just an easier way to be able to communicate with people. I’m not particularly quick at responding to the DMs.
To the sensible person, the idea of investors blaming someone who works to do the very subtle but tedious task of setting financial regulations is just illogical. The fault, of course, lies with the fraudsters who choose to perpetrate scams and Peirce sympathizes deeply with those that get swindled:
My heart goes out to people who have lost a lot of money, whether it’s in this kind of investment scam or any kind of investment scam, and that’s why I really do encourage people, whether it’s crypto or whether it’s any other kind of investment, to ask lots of questions. And if you can’t get answers and if you don’t understand how something works, my suggestion is that you shouldn’t invest. I’m always sad when people get hurt, but I do think that it can be a good lesson for them and the rest of us that you need to to be skeptical and be careful.
Any legitimate investor in the space is aware that investments in the crypto market, however genuine the potential is and lucrative it could be, are risky and that the market does pose some dangers, especially given the volatility and ease with which an ICO can be launched.
The lesson here is to approach the crypto market cautiously, investing only after due diligence, and that trust is more important than ever in a space where, funnily enough, removing centralized trust is a key factor in its growth.
As Peirce herself said:
…it’s important that people who are working in this area remember that they need also to be skeptical in their own decisions about where to invest their money. So if someone just sends in money without asking questions of the person to whom that money is being sent or the group of people to whom money is being sent, and then loses money and expects the SEC to get that money back—don’t necessarily assume that we can do that. My message is one of “Hold us accountable, but also be accountable yourself.
The SEC is making an effort to review the digital assets space and facilitate discussions around it, creating a division called “FinHub” which will engage more closely with the crypto space.
Hester Peirce image via YouTube
