Industry and Regulators Grapple With Structural Gaps
Panelists repeatedly stressed the mismatch between traditional U.S. financial regulation and decentralized crypto ecosystems. Systems for national securities exchanges and alternative trading platforms, they said, do not easily adapt to crypto intermediaries offering custody, execution, and clearing services under a single platform.
Uyeda acknowledged the challenge of applying centralized regulatory models to vertically integrated crypto businesses, which can perform multiple financial functions simultaneously. He argued that blockchain technology could offer greater transparency and efficiency for clearing and transfer functions, even if federal securities laws were never written with these tools in mind.
Calls for Unified Oversight and New Definitions
Tensions between the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) also took center stage. Dave Lauer, founder of Urvin Finance and a leader with We the Investor, warned that regulatory fragmentation could leave key risks unaddressed.
“There’s so many interlinkages … it’s incumbent for these two agencies to work very closely together,” Lauer said.
But Richard Johnson, founder of Texture Capital, went further: “We need to stop pretending that it makes sense that it be two separate regulatory agencies. They should really be merged.”
Panelists also emphasized the challenges of monitoring global crypto markets, noting that most assets trade around the clock and across borders. The pace and volume of market data, they said, requires new surveillance tools and deeper international cooperation.
