WASHINGTON, D.C.—Benjamin Schiffrin, Director of Securities Policy, issued the following statement on SEC Chair Paul Atkins’s Congressional testimony earlier today:
“Chair Atkins’s testimony reflected the SEC’s—and Congress’s—continued preoccupation with crypto. Following the Senate’s vote last night to send a bill legitimizing stablecoins to the floor, Chair Atkins said one of his top priorities is the crypto markets. Indeed, it was the only substantive issue he discussed in his written testimony, which highlighted the work of the SEC’s newly established Crypto Task Force and Chair Atkins’s perceived need for special rules for the crypto industry. In light of his testimony, one would be forgiven for thinking that crypto is the most important issue facing investors. But the Federal Reserve estimates that only 7% of adults own crypto, and some estimates put the number of U.S. households owning crypto as under 5%. Conversely, Gallup recently estimated that 62% of Americans own stock. And the stock market is over $100 trillion whereas the crypto markets are about $3-4 trillion. Yet Chair Atkins barely mentioned the stock market in his testimony.
“The low ownership percentage of crypto among Americans may be due to the prevalence of crypto fraud. Crypto represented nearly 20% of investor complaints to the SEC in fiscal year 2024 despite being only 3-4% of the market. When asked about fraud in the crypto market, Chair Atkins said that there is fraud in traditional markets too. That is true, but our traditional financial markets allow Americans to invest in productive companies and save for college and retirement. The crypto industry has yet to identify a socially legitimate use for crypto. Its primary use, other than by all sorts of criminals, seems to be for speculation.
Indeed, the worst part of Chair Atkins’s testimony was when he equated meme coins—a type of crypto asset—with collectibles such as beanie babies and baseball cards. Chair Atkins’s testimony parroted recent SEC guidance calling meme coins collectibles, but meme coins are not rare, and investors do not attempt to collect a set of meme coins or trade them for other meme coins. Investors purchase meme coins as an investment, and investors have lost their life savings after the price of the meme coins they bought collapsed.
“Chair Atkins said that it is a new day at the SEC and that he plans to return the SEC to its core mission. It seems as if nothing is further from the truth. Instead, it seems as if Chair Atkins is intent on making the SEC’s new mission the crypto industry’s chief cheerleader.”
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