The Chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) intends to leave the position after three and a half years.
Jay Clayton, who has been Chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) since May 2017, will leave the agency at the end of 2021.
In its official press release, the Authority Bitcoin Up stated that Clayton is one of the directors who have held the position for the longest time. Crypto-enthusiasts are well aware of what the Authority is dealing with. The SEC has raised some of the most controversial regulatory issues surrounding the new asset class.
These included early debates on whether or not certain crypto assets should be defined as securities according to the Howey test.
As Chairman, Clayton also warned Bitcoin (BTC) investors last year that they would be “completely wrong” if they believed that the crypto currency could be traded on the major exchanges without more robust regulation.
During Clayton’s tenure, the SEC received requests for over $14 billion in financial redress. In the fiscal year 2020 alone, the amount was $4.68 billion. The authority repaid about $3.5 billion to aggrieved investors. The Commission also paid out around $565 million to informants. The largest amount paid to a single informant was 114 million US dollars. In his statement Clayton said
“The US capital market ecosystem is the strongest and most flexible in the world. Thanks to the hard work of the diverse and inclusive SEC team, we have improved investor protection, promoted capital accumulation for small and large companies and made our markets more transparent and efficient”.
The press release does not say what Clayton’s next steps will be. US Attorney General William Barr recently announced his intention to nominate Clayton as the next US Attorney General for the Southern District of New York.