Hester Peirce, a commissioner with U.S. Securities and Change Fee (SEC), clapped again at her colleagues for imposing a $1.7 million fantastic on defi protocol BarnBridge DAO.
BarnBridge DAO, together with its two founders — Tyler Ward and Troy Murray — agreed to settle fees that it offered structured crypto asset securities often called SMART Yield bonds.
The agency agreed “to disgorge practically $1.5 million of proceeds from the gross sales, and Ward and Murray every agreed to pay a $125,000 [in] civil penalties,” the SEC introduced in a press release.
“Using blockchain know-how for the unregistered provide and sale of structured finance merchandise to retail buyers runs afoul of the securities legal guidelines,” mentioned SEC director Gurbir Grewal mentioned. “This case serves as an vital reminder that these legal guidelines apply to all who want to entry our capital markets, no matter whether or not they’re, or purport to be, integrated, decentralized or autonomous.”
Peirce took problem with the SEC’s resolution to fantastic Ward and Marray. On social media, she wrote, “Though I didn’t write a dissent (but?), I voted in opposition to the motion.”
Peirce hasn’t been shy about criticizing the SEC up to now, particularly in the case of litigation.
In 2022, Peirce said she felt the company “dropped the regulatory ball” regarding cryptocurrency regulation. She additionally penned a scathing critique of the SEC’s “inaction.”
“Watching the SEC refuse over the previous 4 years to interact productively with crypto customers and builders has prompted emotions of disbelief on the SEC’s puzzling, out-of-character strategy to regulation,” he mentioned.
The SEC, at the very least publicly, maintains that its present securities framework adequately governs crypto asset securities — seemingly denying further “petitions for rulemaking.”
“This can be a discipline that’s rife with dangerous actors and rife with fraud and manipulation and cash laundering,” SEC chair Gary Gensler has said.