SEC Could Hit Ground Running on Crypto, Private Equity, ESG
Mark Uyeda will serve as interim Securities and Exchange Commission Chair, while Paul Atkins awaits confirmation.

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What’s first on the agenda?
Former SEC Chair Gary Gensler has (mercifully) left the building, leaving the official pick in Paul Atkins to lead the agency. Acting agency head Mark Uyeda, a Republican crypto proponent, is already working to reverse Gensler-era regulations that created what he has described as “policy through enforcement.” The agency is reportedly weighing a pause on crypto cases, and Uyeda could even focus on rulemaking geared toward private markets and environmental, social, and governance.
Uyeda’s time as chair, while Atkins awaits confirmation, will lay the groundwork for the next Trump 2.0 commission’s agenda, and could have wide reaching implications for the industry. “I would expect the SEC to go from crypto-hostile to crypto-friendly overnight,” said Tom Graff, CIO at Facet.
Crypto Course Correction
The SEC launched a crypto task force on Tuesday with Commissioner Hester Peirce, aka “CryptoMom,” at the helm. The goal is to redefine the agency’s rules on digital assets. “The SEC can do better,” the agency said in a press release.
- First up on Uyeda’s chopping block could be Bulletin 121, guidance from 2022 that recommends institutions holding crypto assets record them as liabilities. Opponents of the practice say it creates a disincentive for banks to hold crypto at all.
- Uyeda and Peirce — who were aides to Atkins when he was at the SEC from 2002 to 2008 — are also expected to create rules clarifying when cryptocurrency is considered a security, per Reuters.
Planet, Schmanet. ESG products have gained plenty of notoriety in recent years, with Republican lawmakers saying they’re not only bad for business, but can ultimately hurt investors by putting political agendas before returns. The agency could start getting tougher on the so-called woke investments, especially if a firm claims that their ESG product has a certain environmental impact. “The SEC could become ever more aggressive about asking for proof,” Graff told The Daily Upside.
PE is likely to become a greater focus for the SEC in the coming months, said Davis Richardson, a managing partner at tech consultancy R3 Insights. Retail clients are now embracing private investments, where regulations are generally thinner than in public markets. “American investors’ appetite for risk has certainly gone up, so private equity is something the SEC is going to have to start considering very carefully,” he told The Daily Upside.