NEWS: Senator Blunt Rochester Presses SEC Chair Atkins on Insider Trading Protections

"Insider trading is bad. It shouldn't happen anywhere. I think we agree on that, right?"

Click here to watch Senator Blunt Rochester's full remarks and exchange with Chairman Atkins.

Washington, DC - U.S. Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, today participated in a hearing with Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins. Senator Blunt Rochester pressed Chairman Atkins on the need for protections against insider trading and self-dealing in our economy.

Senator Blunt Rochester's full remarks and exchange with Chairman Atkins can be found here. A key excerpt is below:

Senator Blunt Rochester: "There's been a lot of discussion about market structure because this committee is working on that issue right now and I want to shift specifically to crypto as it relates to this. In many crypto markets, founders or insiders can exert control or otherwise have confidential information on token supply, the schedule of token releases, governance changes, or major technical decisions, especially before public trading. You would say that's correct?"

Chairman Atkins: "I guess. It depends on the instrument and the token…"

Senator Blunt Rochester: "I know it kind of depends, but all in all, this is kind of the way it works. Case-by-case, this does happen, correct?"

Chairman Atkins: "Yeah, it could."

Senator Blunt Rochester: "Yes. And so, today I think…is insider trading or self-dealing, regardless of asset classification, by someone with confidential information or insider control harmful to market integrity and investors?"

Chairman Atkins: "Well, we want to make sure that the markets are transparent and whatnot. So…"

Senator Blunt Rochester: "These are basic simple questions…What I'm trying to get at is that, to me, insider trading is bad. It shouldn't happen anywhere. I think we agree on that, right?"

Chairman Atkins: "Well, it depends, like, on the futures markets, it's kind of…"

Senator Blunt Rochester: "But the concept of insider trading, this is something you're against, right?"

Chairman Atkins: "On the securities markets, yes."

Senator Blunt Rochester: "Okay, I'll just say this did not go the way I thought it was going to go because I thought these were sort of like basic - all of us agree insider trading is bad and wrong. As a matter of fact, even the case that I referenced that you did the complaint against, this was like a guy giving his friends tips and then them passing him envelopes of cash. So, to me, what I think, for our committee, is going to be important as we look at something as consequential as market structure, is that we're also paying attention to making sure that people don't have this self-dealing or insider trading."

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Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester represents Delaware in the United States Senate where she serves on the Committees on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; Commerce, Science, and Transportation; Environment and Public Works; and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.