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Jay Clayton, president of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission since May 2017, will leave the agency by the end of 2021.
In its official press release, the agency noted that Clayton was one of its longest-lived chairs. Cryptocurrency enthusiasts will likely be familiar with the agency’s work, whose activities have involved some of the most controversial regulatory issues facing the new asset class.
These include early debates on whether or not to define certain crypto assets as a stock in accordance with the 71-year Howey test.
As chairman, Clayton also warned Bitcoin (BTC) investors last year that they would be “grossly wrong” in expecting cryptocurrency to be traded in traditional exchanges without stronger regulation in place.
During Clayton’s tenure, the SEC reportedly secured orders for over $ 14 billion in monetary remedies, including a record $ 4.68 billion in fiscal 2020 alone, and returned approximately $ 3.5 billion to the damaged investors. The commission also paid approximately $ 565 million to whistleblowers, including the largest single award sum paid to a whistleblower to date of $ 114 million. In his starting statement, Clayton said:
“The US capital markets ecosystem is the strongest and most agile in the world, and thanks to the hard work of the diverse and inclusive SEC team, we have improved investor protection, fostered capital formation for small and large businesses. and enabled our markets to function more transparently and efficiently. ”
While today’s press release provides no clue as to the president’s next moves, US Attorney General William Barr recently announced Clayton’s appointment to serve as the next US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
