Yesterday (December 18), the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued an important statement. This time, it’s not about fines or lawsuits, but a public consultation draft.

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce took the lead in speaking out. Known in the industry as a "cryptocurrency advocate," she and the Department of Trading and Markets raised a core question: why must we use century-old rules to regulate blockchain?

The topic directly addresses the practical dilemma faced by U.S. exchanges (NSE) and alternative trading systems (ATS) trying to enter the crypto asset space—high barriers to entry, outdated rules, causing the entire ecosystem to stall. Peirce asked: how can compliant crypto trading operate legally in the U.S.?

She pointed out three pain points worth noting:

**The first issue is the outdated nature of the laws themselves.** Regulations like Reg ATS and Reg NMS date back to 1998, with some provisions even older. At that time, the concept of blockchain did not exist. Forcibly applying these rules to crypto assets results in prohibitively high compliance costs. Just the process and approval procedures for an exchange require huge investments, which clearly hinder innovation.

**The second issue involves rigid information disclosure requirements.** Currently, companies must fill out various complex forms (such as Form ATS), but many data points are inherently transparent on the blockchain. Why is there a need to report the same information privately? This not only wastes resources but also contradicts blockchain’s transparency features. Peirce suggests designing a disclosure standard specifically for crypto.

**The third, more interesting aspect—don’t treat the code itself as a violation.** Sometimes regulators demand compliance from the code, which is a tricky issue for developers. In decentralized systems, the code is the rules themselves. Excessive regulatory interference in the logic of the code could undermine the ecosystem’s operational mechanism.

The significance of this statement lies in the fact that it marks the beginning of serious consideration by U.S. regulators on how to create a compliant space for crypto innovation, rather than simply applying old tools to regulate new technologies. This has guiding implications for the future development of the market and will influence the next steps of exchanges, project teams, and even investors.