SEC Recruits Former Senate Aide as Crypto Advisor
Former Senate aide Corey Frayer will serve as the SEC's newest crypto advisor.
Key Takeaways
- The SEC has hired former Senate aide Corey Frayer to serve as an advisor on matters related to cryptocurrency.
- Frayer will join the SEC alongside three other new staff members hired to serve in roles unrelated to crypto.
- The news comes alongside comments from SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce criticizing unified crypto regulations.
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The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has hired a new senior staff memberc to serve as an advisor on cryptocurrency.
Former Senate Aid Frayer Hired by SEC
The SEC announced Thursday that former Senate Aide Corey Frayer had been hired as a senior advisor on cryptocurrency. Frayer’s role will be to advise Gensler on SEC policymaking and to perform interagency work pertaining to crypto asset oversight.
Frayer has previously worked for the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. He also worked on various issues as a Senior Advisor for the House Financial Services Committee under Rep. Maxine Waters.
Frayer will join the SEC alongside three other new staff members: Philipp Havenstein as Operations Counsel, Jennifer Songer as Investment Management Counsel, and Jorge G. Tenreiro as Enforcement Counsel. Those roles are not specifically related to cryptocurrency.
The recruits will serve under SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, who took on that role in April 2021. Gensler said that the four newly recruited individuals have “have exceptional experience” and that he has “already begun to rely on their valuable counsel.”
Peirce Comments on Unified Regulations
The news comes alongside statements from SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce criticizing calls for a unified cryptocurrency regulator.
Peirce stated that while she understands “the impulse to call for one regulator,” such a demand may actually result in less unity. “Typically in Washington, when you build another regulator, all you get is all the existing regulators plus one,” Peirce said.
Calls for a unified crypto regulator have come from within the U.S. government and from crypto companies such as Coinbase and FTX.
Peirce’s comment was not related to the staff additions that the SEC has just announced. However, the SEC’s decision to appoint a new crypto advisor suggests that it is committed to overseeing crypto activity itself in the absence of a regulatory body specifically dedicated to that purpose.
Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned BTC, ETH, and other cryptocurrencies.
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