SEC Chair: Cryptocurrency Could Become the Ultimate Financial Surveillance Tool, Calls for Regulatory Balance Between Privacy and Security

Gold Financial reported that on December 15th local time, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Paul Atkinson stated that cryptocurrencies could develop into “the most powerful financial surveillance architecture in history,” but also emphasized that regulation should avoid overreach to seek a balance between safety and personal privacy.
At the sixth roundtable of the SEC Crypto Working Group, Atkinson pointed out that blockchain technology can efficiently track the association between transactions and senders. If regulatory directions are inappropriate, the government may treat each wallet as a broker and each software as an exchange, turning the crypto ecosystem into a “financial panorama prison.” However, he also believes that it is still possible to build a regulatory framework that does not sacrifice personal privacy.