SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce to Step Down on Oct. 2

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce said she will resign effective October 2, disclosing the date in a resignation letter she posted Friday on X. Dubbed "Crypto Mom" by the industry, Peirce has been a prominent advocate for clearer rules for digital assets. She continued to press for regulatory clarity even as the SEC pursued an aggressive enforcement approach under former Chairs Jay Clayton and Gary Gensler. During the Trump administration, she participated in rulemaking efforts and was appointed last year to lead the SEC's newly created crypto task force. Her crypto-related work has included policy statements and guidance touching on mining, staking and meme coins, with an emphasis on classifying and defining different crypto assets to delineate regulatory jurisdiction. More recently, the SEC has started moving toward formal rule proposals. The agency began with "Regulation Crypto Assets," aimed at setting a framework for crypto-asset issuance designed to avoid triggering stringent securities requirements. The SEC has also introduced an "innovation exemption" to create a pathway for securities tokenization, establishing a five-year, limited-duration regime. Peirce will join Regent University School of Law as an associate professor. After her departure, the SEC will have two commissioners remaining—Atkins and Mark Uyeda—an amount that meets quorum requirements under current rules. Also on Friday, the SEC published a crypto-asset FAQ addressing how token marketing can avoid the "essential managerial efforts" characterization, issues involving staking receipts, and when secondary-market participants may be viewed as "promoters" of an investment contract.