SEC designated Peirce to lead crypto task force as she mapped its regulatory agenda

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission formally designated Commissioner Hester Peirce to lead its Crypto Task Force on February 4, 2025, the same date she published a detailed roadmap covering token classification, offerings, custody, staking, exchange-traded products and tokenized securities.

Acting SEC Chairman Mark Uyeda’s designation authorized Peirce to direct task-force activities, oversee participating agency staff, solicit public input, assist Congress, convene roundtables and coordinate with other regulators. It also designated her as the SEC’s representative on the President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets.

The combination mattered because it connected an official delegation of authority with the clearest account then available of how the agency’s new leadership intended to reconsider crypto regulation. It did not change the legal status of any token, approve a product or settle pending litigation on February 4.

Ten work areas, not ten completed policies

Peirce identified ten non-exhaustive areas under examination. The first was the threshold question of which crypto assets fell within federal securities law. From that issue followed the task force’s interest in identifying conduct outside SEC jurisdiction and using no-action letters to explain when staff would not recommend enforcement under specified facts.

For token offerings, Peirce said the task force was considering whether to recommend temporary prospective and retroactive relief when a responsible party supplied specified information, kept it current and accepted SEC jurisdiction over fraud claims. Under the concept she described, qualifying tokens could be treated as non-securities while the required information remained accurate and current.

That was a policy concept, not an exemption available on February 4. Peirce expressly said her views were her own and that Commission positions required a vote. No rule text, eligibility test, application process or effective date accompanied the statement.

The roadmap also contemplated modifying Regulation A and crowdfunding pathways for registered token offerings. It proposed examining the SEC’s special-purpose broker-dealer position, including whether registered firms could custody crypto-asset securities alongside assets that were not securities.

Custody, staking and investment products

Investment-adviser custody formed another workstream. Peirce said the task force would seek a framework under which advisers could custody client crypto assets themselves or through third parties in a manner that was safe, legal and practical.

Crypto lending and staking received separate attention because their securities-law treatment remained uncertain. The statement did not conclude that either activity was categorically inside or outside SEC jurisdiction. It committed the task force to examining whether covered programs could be structured consistently with existing law.

For crypto exchange-traded products, the task force planned to clarify its approach to applications and consider changes to existing products, including staking and in-kind creations and redemptions. Peirce cautioned that custody and related questions might have to be resolved before such features became operational.

The final areas addressed clearing-agency and transfer-agent rules for tokenized securities, plus limited cross-border experimentation. These subjects extended the agenda beyond crypto-native issuers to the infrastructure of regulated capital markets.

A coordinated policy reset with defined limits

The SEC had announced the task force on January 21, 2025. Its February 4 designation letter converted Peirce’s leadership from an earlier public announcement into a formal delegation by the acting chairman. On February 4, congressional committee leaders also announced a bicameral digital-assets working group intended to build consensus around federal legislation, placing the SEC initiative within a broader Washington policy reset.

The boundaries remained important. Peirce promised continued antifraud attention and warned that the SEC did not endorse any coin, token, product or service. She also acknowledged that pending cases, unfinished rules and interagency jurisdictional questions could not be disentangled quickly.

The defensible February 4 conclusion was therefore procedural but consequential: SEC leadership established who would direct its crypto-policy project and disclosed the principal questions it intended to address. The event supplied a regulatory agenda, not regulatory certainty.