The United States SEC has been at odds with the crypto community for years. While any regulatory clarity involving the industry is yet to see the light of the day, it has now resorted to summoning speakers at crypto events. Even before taking the podium of the Mainnet 2021 crypto conference in New York, an attendee claimed to have witnessed a speaker subpoenaed by the SEC.
The development sparked off massive uproar amid growing tension in the crypto community. Many speculated the reason behind the move. One such was a prominent lawyer and General Counsel of Compound Finance, Jake Chervinsky who pointed out that summoning someone at a conference could either be due to the fact that the “target” lives outside the US or the SEC wanted to see the entire fiasco unfold live to send a message or intimidate dissents.
SEC vs Crypto: the final straw
Messari was the organizer of the blockchain conference that kicked off amidst regulators at the state and federal levels intensifying scrutiny in the crypto space. Naturally, the founder of the crypto research firm Ryan Selkis wasn’t pleased. In a series of tweets, the exec stated revealed offering compensation event passes for regulatory, which they refused. He concluded that the regulators had no intention of learning about the space and that they wanted to shut the entire industry down. However, Selkis made no mention about the regulator being SEC but confirmed the subpoena reports.
SEC had previously hammered cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and blockchain firm, Ripple. While the latter is still fighting the regulators, Coinbase, on the other hand, has made a compromise by dropping its plans to launch the LEND product. Nevertheless, serving at an event where there were invited to appeared to be an aggressive move. Selkis, who happens to be one of the most vocal crypto proponents, announced plans to run for the U.S. Senate in 2024 after the event.
His tweet regarding the same read,
“If you’re wondering when I actually decided to run for Senate, it was when these fuckers came to my event, didn’t buy a ticket, and served one of the speakers a subpoena. Enough talk. More war on our out-of-control regulatory state. Selkis 2024. Time to activate the crypto political machine.”