US SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, also known as Crypto Mom, has reiterated that meme coins fall outside the regulator’s jurisdiction, indicating it cannot protect investors from the TRUMP meme coin.
Democrats are reeling over US President Donald Trump’s TRUMP token and his family’s growing involvement with the crypto industry. Some prominent market participants are also concerned and are looking to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to act in the best interest of investors.
Meanwhile, US SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce has clarified that the agency can’t take any action regarding the TRUMP token. At her appearance at the 2025 Bitcoin Conference, she emphasized that not just the token, but meme coins in general do not fall under the purview of the securities watchdog.
“It’s important for people who are buying those to understand they are not getting the protections of the securities laws,” Pierce stated, reiterating her earlier stance that the agency would not get involved with meme coins. According to her, investors who enter the meme coin market should always be prepared to lose it all.
Memecoin Regulation Would Be an Overreach
The TRUMP token has not been far from controversy since its launch in January. The Solana-based meme coin surged to an all-time high of $75 a few days after its market debut, with Democrats insisting the US president used his political position to grow his wealth.
Meanwhile, the token has lost 85% of its value, raising another argument that the meme coin was a pump-and-dump scheme aimed at defrauding investors. Notably, the White House has denied all these claims, insisting they were false.
However, according to Peirce, the US SEC would not interfere in any of these. She urged due diligence, as the commission would not offer investors protection in matters related to memes. In her words, users should “be an adult” and not come complaining to the SEC if their pursuit of elusive gains in crypto memes goes sideways.
Recall that she has made a similar disclosure in the past. She told a Bloomberg reporter in February that most meme coins, including the TRUMP token, do not have a home under current securities regulations; hence, they are not within the SEC’s ambit.
Furthermore, Peirce discussed the prospect of a “meme coin commission” to address the growing investor concerns around the meme coin sector. However, she insisted that the decision hinges on whether Congress finds it necessarily a great idea.
Securities Classification is Contextual: Pierce
The US SEC has recently clarified that certain digital assets and network activities are not securities. While upholding that cryptocurrencies themselves are not securities, the agency’s Division of Corporation Finance also disclosed on May 29 that specific staking activities on proof-of-stake networks do not fall under the purview of securities law.
Nonetheless, Peirce stated in Las Vegas that while most cryptocurrencies are not securities themselves, how they are offered could constitute offering securities to investors. For context, if an issuer sells an asset that is not a security in a securities transaction, it automatically changes the context.
She mentioned that more digital assets would fall under securities law when stock and bond tokenization become rampant on-chain. However, the commissioner noted the SEC is working to provide clear guidelines for crypto firms.
Meanwhile, the SEC’s efforts to roll back regulation through enforcement were again evident in its latest move to dismiss its case against leading crypto exchange Binance and its co-founder, CZ, without prejudice.
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