Hester Peirce Resigns From SEC Effective Oct. 2, Leaving Two Commissioners
Hester Peirce's resignation takes effect Oct. 2, leaving the SEC with Chair Paul Atkins and Mark Uyeda as its two remaining commissioners.
Why it matters
The SEC drops to two commissioners, both Republicans, with a crypto custody proposal and a larger crypto offering rule still in the public comment period. Peirce's departure means the agency she led has to finalize a rule she began without her, and no successor has been named in the evidence.
Where the sources disagree
Peirce's length of SEC service
about eight years
CoinDesk, Cointelegraph, Crypto News (CryptoNews.net)
nearly nine years
Crypto News Flash
Cointelegraph and CoinDesk put her tenure at about eight years, while Crypto News Flash describes nearly nine years as a commissioner counting her January 2018 start date.
Peirce's final day at the SEC
Oct. 2
CoinDesk, Cointelegraph, Bitcoin.com News, Crypto.News
November
Bitcoin Magazine
Bitcoin.com News and Crypto.News give Oct. 2 as the resignation date, but Bitcoin Magazine reported on Sept. 24 that she was set to leave the SEC in November, matching her law school start rather than the resignation date.
Peirce's standing at the agency
chief counsel Taylor Lindman speaking for the Crypto Task Force
CoinDesk
Peirce as task force director and chief who exits this week
CoinDesk
CoinDesk's Sept. 22 account cites Taylor Lindman, chief counsel of the Crypto Task Force, as the SEC's public voice on the custody agenda, while later coverage identifies Peirce as the task force's leader and its chief, described as leaving the SEC at its crypto agenda's swan song.
Key facts
Hester Peirce announced her resignation from the SEC effective Oct. 2 in a letter dated Sept. 21 that she posted on X on Friday.
Reported by CoinDesk
Peirce served roughly eight years as a commissioner and has led the SEC Crypto Task Force since Feb. 4, 2025.
Reported by Cointelegraph
Peirce will join Regent University School of Law in Virginia as an associate professor in November, an appointment announced in May.
Reported by Cointelegraph
The SEC proposed a crypto custody rule for investment advisers and funds on Oct. 1, opening a 60-day public comment period and allowing self-custody in certain circumstances and state-chartered trusts as custodians.
60 daysReported by CoinDesk
Comments on Regulation Crypto Assets, the SEC's largest proposed crypto offering rule, are due Oct. 20, 18 days after Peirce's planned departure.
Reported by Crypto.News
At SIFMA's Digital Assets Conference on Sept. 23, Peirce argued regulators should collect less personal data and monitor more sparingly rather than expand know-your-customer and anti-money-laundering rules.
Reported by Bitcoin Magazine
What happened
Hester Peirce posted a resignation letter on X on Friday, dated Sept. 21, announcing her departure from the SEC effective Oct. 2 after roughly eight years as a commissioner and, since Feb. 4, 2025, as director of the Crypto Task Force. Cointelegraph and Bitcoin.com News report the letter thanks President Trump and cites Chairman Paul Atkins and Commissioner Mark Uyeda, both Republicans, as the two remaining members; Bitcoin.com News also quotes the letter describing the SEC's tenure as the honor of her professional lifetime. Peirce is moving to Regent University School of Law in Virginia as an associate professor in November, an appointment Cointelegraph and Crypto News Flash say was announced in May, which Crypto News Flash reads as a planned transition rather than a sudden departure. She used her remaining weeks to press the agency's crypto agenda: CoinDesk reported a custody proposal for investment firms and broker-dealers issued Oct. 1, opening a 60-day comment period and allowing self-custody in certain circumstances, and Crypto.News reported that comments on Regulation Crypto Assets are due Oct. 20, 18 days after her exit, with SEC quorum rule 200.41 permitting a two-member quorum. Peirce's parting speech at SIFMA's Digital Assets Conference on Sept. 23, covered by Bitcoin Magazine, argued for less personal-data collection rather than more know-your-customer and anti-money-laundering obligations; in the same speech reported by CoinDesk, she called on the next commissioners to finish her mission, and the SEC's own Division of Corporation Finance issued staking-token FAQs on Sept. 25, a guidance CoinGape notes the commission itself has neither approved nor rejected. What remains open is who replaces her and whether Atkins and Uyeda agree on final rules for the two proposals still in comment.
How the story developed
- First report
First report by CoinDesk
Next for the U.S. SEC: Agency's chief crypto counsel illuminates path for custody
- Update
SEC custody proposal enters White House review
Taylor Lindman, chief counsel of the SEC Crypto Task Force, said the proposal for investment firms and broker-dealers was meant to let non-security crypto assets be carried without special registration.
- Independent corroboration
Independently corroborated by Cointelegraph
Ex-SEC acting chair: Agency dropped crypto cases to avoid issues with credibility
- Official statement
Peirce urges regulators to collect less personal data
At SIFMA's Digital Assets Conference in New York she criticised know-your-customer and anti-money-laundering rules as turning financial rails into a panopticon.
- Update
SEC Division of Corporation Finance issues crypto FAQs
Staff said some staking receipt tokens may be digital tools rather than securities and addressed wrapped assets, buybacks and functional networks; CoinGape reported the SEC itself has neither approved nor rejected the answers.
- Official statement
Peirce posts resignation letter dated Sept. 21
The letter sets her final day at the SEC as Oct. 2 and arrived as the agency posted further crypto policy guidance on tokens and project marketing.
- Official statement
Official statement from Bitcoin.com News
‘Crypto Mom’ Hester Peirce Resigns From SEC Effective Oct 2
- Update
SEC proposes crypto custody rule for advisers and funds
The proposal opens a 60-day comment period, allows self-custody in certain circumstances and permits state-chartered trusts as custodians; Chairman Paul Atkins called existing rules an untenable situation in the 21st century.
- Resolution
Peirce's final day as commissioner
Will Schwartz of the Blockchain Association, writing that her work is not done, said she told SIFMA attendees it is incumbent on the commission to continue her mission.
How coverage built up
Independent sources over time, counted the way the consensus panel counts them: a republication of a wire story does not move the line.
- 22 Sept 2026, 15:21 UTC: CoinDesk — 1 independent source, 1 reports
- 23 Sept 2026, 21:47 UTC: Cointelegraph — 2 independent sources, 2 reports
- 23 Sept 2026, 21:54 UTC: Crypto News (CryptoNews.net) — 3 independent sources, 3 reports
- 24 Sept 2026, 20:58 UTC: Bitcoin Magazine — 4 independent sources, 4 reports
- 25 Sept 2026, 13:00 UTC: CryptoSlate — 5 independent sources, 5 reports
- 25 Sept 2026, 19:46 UTC: U.Today — 6 independent sources, 6 reports
- 25 Sept 2026, 20:48 UTC: CoinGape — 7 independent sources, 8 reports
- 26 Sept 2026, 15:35 UTC: Crypto News Flash — 8 independent sources, 11 reports
- 26 Sept 2026, 16:55 UTC: CryptoPotato — 9 independent sources, 12 reports
- 27 Sept 2026, 05:30 UTC: Bitcoin.com News, official — 10 independent sources, 15 reports
- 27 Sept 2026, 11:37 UTC: Crypto.News — 11 independent sources, 17 reports
Affected entities
Also mentioned: Germany, Gary Gensler, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Brian Armstrong, Kraken, Ripple, Bitcoin
Original sources
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