SEC Commissioner Allison Lee Is Leaving The Regulatory Body

SEC commissioner Allison Lee is leaving the regulatory body and the Senate confirmed the replacement for her, Jamie Lizarraga, who will work at the SEC for a term ending in 2027 so let’s have a closer look at today’s latest cryptocurrency news.

The SEC Commissioner Allison Lee is one of the five members of the US SEC board and she officially left the regulatory body after three years as a commissioner. The chair Gary Gensler and commissioners Hester Peirce, Mark Uyeda, and Caroline Crenshaw said that LEe left the SEC where she started working in 2005 as a staff attorney in Denver. She moved on to be appointed as a commissioner in 2019 under the preivous presidential administration and then served as an acting chair to the regulatory body for three months.

Congratulations, Mark Uyeda and Jaime Lizárraga, on being nominated to be Commissioners of the Securities and Exchange Commission: https://t.co/IkB7XTUuEY

— Hester Peirce (@HesterPeirce) April 6, 2022

“Commissioner Lee has been a stalwart advocate for strong and stable markets, including by emphasizing the need for market participants to maintain the highest ethical standards.”

Lee first announced her departure back in March with president Joe Biden nominating her replacement in April, Jamie Lizarraga as a staffer for the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The Senate confirmed Lizarraga’s nomination for a term ending in 2027. during her time at the SEC, Lee said the commission has to evolve with changing technologies and added that the regulatory body should maintain its principles. Lizarraga made a few public statements on crypto and the Pelosi staffer also prepared legislation to handle the financial crisis in 2008.

The SEC along with the CFTC, and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network handles crypto regulation in the US but it also resulted in a patchwork approach that crypto companies have to navigate in order to operate. It is unclear what impact the department of Lee will have on the regulation and enforcement in the crypto space.

As earlier reported, Gary Gensler, the SEC Chairman confirmed that Bitcoin is only seen as a commodity but he refused to comment on the classification of other cryptos which left the status of Ethereum unclear. Jim Cramer asked the chairman about his collaboration with the CFTC in regulating digital assets and Gensler responded with his view that most of the market which is a highly speculative asset class and is composed of securities.