Blockworks Publishes Op-Ed From Andrew St. Laurent on How the SEC Should Regulate Crypto

July 12, 2023

Cryptocurrency and Web 3.0 publication Blockworks has published an op-ed by Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler LLP partner Andrew St. Laurent.

His piece, “It’s not too late for the SEC to be the good guy,” addresses the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC)’s attempts to impose its rules on crypto companies and stakeholders through one-off enforcement actions. St. Laurent was part of the legal team defending former Coinbase product manager Ishan Wahi in SEC v. Wahi, which was among the first SEC actions to claim cryptocurrencies as securities.

In his op-ed piece, St. Laurent writes that while the SEC should regulate the industry with the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission, its “regulation by enforcement” approach will chill innovation and discourage participation in the cryptocurrency industry stateside.

Instead, he suggests the agency consider a different, more constructive path: developing regulatory guidelines with industry players through “notice-and-comment” rulemaking under the Administrative Procedure Act. Sister agencies have used this process, which requires an agency to draft industrywide policies based on input from an emerging industry’s stakeholders, for autonomous vehicle standards and other emerging issues.

He writes, “It remains to be seen whether the SEC’s attempts to obtain regulatory authority over the industry via piecemeal regulatory action will succeed. What is indisputable is that a well-thought-out, public and collaborative regulatory regime consistent with the APA is far superior to the SEC’s ‘regulation-by-enforcement’ approach.”

St. Laurent is a first-chair trial lawyer who has tried more than 20 cases to verdict, from federal jury trials to FINRA, AAA and JAMS arbitrations, as well as numerous New York State court bench and jury trials. He regularly represents individuals and companies in criminal and regulatory matters. St. Laurent has been recognized as a Super Lawyer for ten years, from 2013-2022, and has been featured in numerous publications as a contributor. He is Chambers-ranked, as is Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler LLP, for white-collar criminal defense and government investigations in New York.