Hester Peirce gave what may be her most consequential speech in years this week, and she did it in her second-to-last week as a SEC commissioner. Speaking at SIFMA’s Digital Assets Conference
Hester Peirce gave what may be her most consequential speech in years this week, and she did it in her second-to-last week as a SEC commissioner. Speaking at SIFMA’s Digital Assets Conference on September 23, she made the case that the way financial institutions handle identity verification is broken. Her issue isn’t with the goal of KYC and AML compliance, she was clear about that, but with the method.
The current approach requires institutions to collect and store enormous amounts of personal data to prove a customer meets a regulatory threshold. Peirce argued that zero-knowledge proofs and attribute-based credentials could confirm the same things (age, sanctions status, accredited investor eligibility) without anyone having to hand over the underlying records. The speech carries no regulatory weight on its own. Her views are her own, not the SEC’s, and current KYC rules remain unchanged. But a sitting commissioner making this argument publicly, in her final days, is the kind of thing regulators and the industry tend to come back to.
Xi Jinping arrived at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday for his first US state visit in over a decade, and the two leaders met at the White House on Thursday for bilateral talks covering trade, AI, Taiwan, and Iran. The trade deal reached earlier this year is holding, and neither side made news by blowing it up. Perhaps the more interesting story sitting underneath the summit is this: the Trump administration is weighing a plan to use public-private joint ventures to actively promote dollar-backed stablecoins overseas, with the Treasury Department, State Department, and US International Development Finance Corporation all potentially involved. The goal is straightforward: keep the dollar dominant as global money goes digital. No specific companies, countries, or timelines have been confirmed. But this is no longer a think-tank idea. It is an active policy conversation inside the administration.
A few other stories worth your attention this week:
In AI, Singapore’s government is pushing hard on AI adoption across its economy while its financial regulator (MAS), is simultaneously warning that the investment boom is moving faster than anyone fully understands. The two positions are not contradictory, and the tension between them is exactly what makes Singapore worth watching right now. Separately, the UK is pushing Google to open Android and Search to AI assistants and rival developers under its own competition framework, following the EU’s lead. Google has not complied cheerfully on the EU side. It is unlikely to behave differently here.
From Hester Peirce’s parting argument to the ECB going live on-chain, this week had no shortage of storylines. If you missed anything, here’s your catch-up.
Lead Story of the Week:SEC’s Peirce Calls for a New Crypto KYC Approach (Read More)
EC Commissioner Hester Peirce urged a KYC and AML shift from broad data collection to verifying specific facts. (Read The Full Story)
The US is considering private-sector partnerships to expand dollar-backed stablecoins overseas. (Read More)
Trump and Xi are meeting at the White House, four months after their last meeting in Beijing. (Read More)
Binance to move crypto from Funding to Spot Accounts before renaming them “Stocks Accounts” by 2027. (Read More)
X is suing users accused of manipulating its creator-revenue system using Bitcoin-focused accounts. (Read More)
ECB Launches Pontes for Tokenized Asset Settlement (Read More)
The ECB launched Pontes, connecting its TARGET settlement system to blockchain-based financial markets. (Read More)
Singapore is pushing AI adoption while its financial regulator warns of risks from the investment boom. (Read More)
The UK pushes Google to give AI developers and search engines access to Android and search under the DMA. (Read More)
Top Gainers 
Neon (NEON) is rising due to speculative volume bursts bouncing off low liquidity, not fundamentals.
Top Losers 
AntFun (ANTFUN) is dropping as hype cools after its mid-September peak, with profit-taking.
Source: CoinGecko
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Disclaimer: This roundup is intended solely for informational purposes and should not be considered trading or investment advice. Nothing herein should be construed as financial, legal, or tax advice. Trading or investing in cryptocurrencies carries a considerable risk of financial loss. Always conduct due diligence
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The post This Week in Crypto: The SEC’s Crypto Mom Just Made Her Most Interesting Argument Yet appeared first on DeFi Planet.
