The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is ramping up its efforts to engage with the crypto community by expanding its series of crypto roundtables and taking its crypto policy outreach on the road. The tour is set to kick off on Aug. 4 in Berkeley, California, with the aim of giving founders and developers, especially those with small teams and young projects, the opportunity to meet with the Commission outside of Washington, D.C.
Hester Peirce, the lead of the Crypto Task Force, emphasized the importance of hearing from a wide range of stakeholders who may not have been able to attend previous sessions. She stated, “The Crypto Task Force is acutely aware that any regulatory framework will have far-reaching effects, and we want to ensure that our outreach is as comprehensive as possible.”
Teams interested in participating in the “Crypto on the Road” tour can request a slot by emailing [email protected] with the subject line “Crypto on the Road” and providing details about their project and team. To promote transparency, the Task Force plans to publish a list of participating projects.
The tour is scheduled to run through December, with stops in cities such as Boston, Dallas, Chicago, New York City, Irvine, Cleveland, Scottsdale, and Ann Arbor. The dates are tentative and subject to change as logistics are finalized.
This initiative builds on the SEC’s previous engagement with the crypto industry, including the first Crypto Task Force roundtable held in Washington on March 21. Panelists at the event discussed the need for regulatory clarity for digital assets and debated topics such as token classification and the applicability of existing securities laws to decentralized systems.
Following the success of the first roundtable, the SEC decided to host additional events focusing on topics like regulation clarity and the role of decentralized finance in US innovation. By taking the conversation to local hubs, the Commission hopes to gather a diverse range of perspectives from industry players, including smart contract developers, tokenization teams, and early-stage consumer apps, before proposing any new regulations that could impact how crypto is regulated under federal securities law.
Overall, the SEC’s “Crypto on the Road” tour represents a proactive effort to engage with the crypto community and gather valuable insights that will inform the Commission’s approach to regulating the rapidly evolving digital asset space.