SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce will leave the agency on Oct. 2, bringing her tenure as one of the SEC’s most prominent voices on cryptocurrency policy to a close.

Peirce announced her resignation Friday in a letter posted to X. The announcement came on the same day the SEC released additional material addressing how it views digital assets, including questions about token classifications and the way crypto projects market themselves.

Nicknamed “Crypto Mom” by people in the digital asset sector, Peirce spent years advocating for clearer rules for the industry. Her time at the SEC included the chairmanships of Jay Clayton and Gary Gensler, both of whom oversaw periods of extensive regulatory enforcement involving crypto companies.

The agency’s approach shifted under President Donald Trump, when Peirce took on a larger role in shaping cryptocurrency policy. She was appointed to head the SEC’s Crypto Task Force last year, before Paul Atkins became chairman.

Her work at the regulator included policy statements and guidance covering crypto mining, staking and memecoins. Peirce also worked on frameworks intended to distinguish among different types of digital assets and clarify which regulatory agency should have authority over them.

The SEC has increasingly moved toward formal rulemaking on crypto. One proposal, known as Regulation Crypto Assets, sought to establish a framework for offering digital assets without automatically subjecting them to the full set of securities regulations.

Tokenization has also become a major focus. The SEC’s “innovation exemption” provides a five-year framework for certain tokenized securities initiatives, with the results intended to help inform future permanent rules.

In her resignation letter, Peirce stressed the importance of giving people freedom to make their own decisions while maintaining sensible rules that provide confidence for transactions. She is set to join Regent University School of Law as an associate professor after leaving the commission.

Peirce discussed her “Crypto Mom” nickname in a 2019 speech and criticized the SEC’s approach to digital assets at the time. She argued that the agency had constrained innovation and growth by relying heavily on enforcement actions, staff guidance and no-action letters rather than establishing comprehensive rules.

Following her departure, the SEC will have only two commissioners: Chairman Paul Atkins and Republican appointee Mark Uyeda. The agency’s rules allow two commissioners to serve as a quorum when fewer than the full number of members are available.

The Trump administration has yet to nominate Democratic commissioners to vacant positions at the SEC or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. It is not yet clear whether those vacancies will be filled.

SEC Releases Fresh Crypto FAQ

Alongside the resignation announcement, the SEC published a new FAQ addressing several technical issues involving digital asset classifications and the conduct of crypto project teams.

The document examines how activities such as token marketing, software modifications and other project decisions could be interpreted as “essential managerial efforts.”

It also addresses staking receipt tokens and considers when activity in a secondary market could cause an entity to be viewed as a “promoter” of an investment contract.

The new material represents another step in the SEC’s ongoing effort to clarify how existing securities rules apply to digital assets and crypto-related activities.