SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce Tells Crypto Investors to ‘Be an Adult’, Clarifies Securities Transactions

By Jody McDonald May 30, 2025 In SEC, Security

Source:AdobeStock

Hester Peirce, SEC Commissioner and head of the regulator’s crypto taskforce, has told attendees at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas they need to deal with their crypto losses like adults.
Peirce suggested that the crypto community has a tendency to want the government to stay away when they’re making profits, but asks for bail-outs when the losses start piling up.
Peirce also said the securities status of a crypto transaction depends more on the details of the specific deal than the characteristics of the digital assets used.

Living up to her reputation as the ‘Crypto Mom’ Hester Peirce, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Crypto Taskforce, has dealt out some tough love — telling attendees at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas to deal with their crypto losses like adults.

Her comments came in response to a question about memecoins, which the SEC deemed to be outside of its jurisdiction earlier this year.

“Be an adult,” Peirce told attendees, adding “if you want to engage in speculation, go for it. But if something goes wrong, don’t come complaining to the government about it.”

Peirce also called for the crypto community to reflect on its ideas about government’s role in crypto markets more generally. She said that if people want the freedom to make money in crypto without government interference, they should also accept the risk of losing money without government bailouts.

I do think that sometimes, when something bad happens in this space, people who are remarkably free thinkers, libertarian-minded people, come in and say, ‘Where was the government? Why weren’t you protecting me? Hey, Crypto Mom, where’s my bailout?’

Hester Peirce, SEC Commissioner

“C’mon, let’s have some consistency,” Peirce said. “Yes, you should have freedom to make your own choices, and when it goes wrong, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, learn from it and do better next time. And that is the best way to move forward.”

Context Matters When It Comes To Crypto Security Status, Says Peirce

Peirce also told attendees the security status of any given crypto transaction depends more on the specific deal being made than the nature of the underlying assets. While most crypto assets currently available aren’t securities, Peirce said that doesn’t mean they couldn’t form part of a securities transaction.

“Most crypto assets as we see them today are probably not themselves securities. That doesn’t mean that you can’t sell a token that is not itself a security in a transaction that is a securities transaction.” She said: “that is where we really need to provide some guidance.”

Peirce said she expects the number of crypto assets that are securities to grow as tokenisation of real-world assets, such as stocks and bonds, continues to grow.