SEC's Peirce Sees Clarity Act Passing This Summer as Crypto Rules Take Shape

Peirce, whose term nears its end, will leave the agency for a law school teaching post. She flagged a rise in scams and a gap in financial education as her chief concerns, urging investors toward skepticism.

SEC Chairman Paul Atkins struck similar notes in a Fox News interview with Larry Kudlow after an address to the Economic Club of New York. He pointed to reforms aimed at drawing more Americans into public markets and easing the path to an IPO.

Atkins highlighted the Trump Accounts, set to launch July 4th, as an expression of American capitalism and long-term saving. About 6 million children have enrolled, he said, and children born in the next two years will receive a $1,000 deposit, with room for matches from employers, parents, and friends.

“America was an investment before it was a nation,” Atkins told Kudlow, citing the European companies that financed voyages across the Atlantic, including the settlement that became New York.

On crypto, Atkins said the president had challenged the agency to make the United States the crypto capital of the world. He faulted the prior administration for treating digital assets as suspect by nature, and pledged a reversal that would bring innovators who left the country back to build under American law.

Both officials framed their agenda against the July 4th holiday and the anniversary of the founding. Peirce called the market system a check on capital allocation by the government. Atkins offered a shorter version of the same creed: free-market capitalism, in his words, will win.