As the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) readies for a shake-up under President-elect Donald Trump, one of the agency’s commissioners is fully backing the tentative cryptocurrency plan – and emerging as one of the next SEC chair nominees.
"One of the things that President Trump is absolutely right is, the current administration's war on crypto needs to stop," SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda said on "Varney & Co." Friday.
"There are a number of things that we can do with respect to crypto to help make America one of the global leaders in crypto."
Uyeda spoke with FOX Business’ Stuart Varney just one day after it was announced that current SEC Chair Gary Gensler would resign from his post as soon as Trump takes office.
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Trump made his pro-crypto stance loud and clear on the 2024 presidential campaign trail, which Uyeda plans to assist with.
"First off, from a regulatory perspective, we can provide the appropriate clarity. Some crypto is not even a security at all, but we need to make clear whether or not you fall within SEC jurisdiction or not," Uyeda explained.
"One of the other very important things we can do is create safe harbors and regulatory sandboxes to allow that innovation to occur. And finally," he added, "we need to work with the Congress, the White House and other federal regulatory agencies to make sure we have a cohesive and comprehensive approach to crypto."
The top Republican has served on the commission since 2022 and would likely become acting chair when Trump takes the reins in January.
Gensler's position – that all crypto tokens aside from bitcoin and ether are securities under the SEC's jurisdiction – has faced strong opposition from the crypto industry, its legal advocates and numerous members of Congress.
It's also drawn heavy criticism from fellow commissioners like Uyeda and Hester Peirce, who have advocated for a more transparent approach to regulation, including creating clear guidelines for digital assets and working directly with industry participants.
Uyeda said Friday it’s ultimately "a decision for the president to make" on who gets the leading seat.
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"What I can tell you is that whoever steps in that job, there is a lot of work that needs to be done to address some of the regulatory excesses, not only at the FCC, but at other administrative agencies. There are a lot of new rules and regulations that were rolled out. There are a lot of unintended consequences, many of which will need to be addressed," he said.
"I'm just going back to my experience and the last transition we had with President Trump. I was fortunate to be on our executive staff… And there are so many things, like the situation was back then, that need to be addressed."
FOX Business’ Eleanor Terrett contributed to this report.
