The op-ed by former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton (“America’s Future Depends on the Blockchain,” Dec. 17) is staggeringly ironic, given the SEC’s abject failure under his leadership to embrace the innovation and potential of blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies. Mr. Clayton stifled the crypto industry while in office, yet now he calls for the government to facilitate the adoption of the technology.
The director of national intelligence wrote to Mr. Clayton at the time, urging that regulatory certainty would allow U.S. companies to compete against Chinese rivals. A bipartisan group of members of Congress wrote to Mr. Clayton on the same topic, noting the SEC’s crypto posture was “unsustainable.” Former SEC Commissioner Joseph Grundfest cautioned against taking an enforcement action against my company, Ripple, calling it “highly problematic.”