While the crypto industry is eager to regulate the US as the last major part of the world’s mature puzzle, sector veteran and compliance expert Tumbie Le, former Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer Tumbie Le argues that what Congress and regulators are working on is at the heart of the financial system of the future, not just today’s digital assets sector.
Le, who held top legal and regulator roles at Anchorage Digital, Bain Capital and former WorldCoin (now World Network), told Coindesk that he expects new rules coming to old regulatory employers to ultimately manage the business at the heart of the market. Moving traditional financial securities and commodity transactions to blockchain is a dramatic move for a field stuck with a legacy approach rooted in transaction processing, rooted in the long clearing and settlement approach established decades ago.
“The Crypto-Tradfi Convergence has already begun,” she said in an interview, outlined more amplified ideas in a paper she published with Austin Campbell of New York University on Monday. “When the market structure and stable laws pass, it really takes off. Honestly, it can be hard to realize you are experiencing real change when you’re going on, but I think we really have changed the way we saw the internet and how it fundamentally changed, in Toronto 2025.
So far, she was impressed by the changes lawmakers have made in the latest debate draft of the market structure bill built against the background of 21st Century Legal Innovation and Technology (FIT21). She praised her approach to obtaining multiple types of transactions within a single trading platform range and her views on blockchain maturity.
She said that legislation currently underway in Congress would be a “huge unlock” for the industry, but US financial institutions, including the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission, are already in motion.
“Even regulators are aware of how to use blockchain to create better architectures for the capital market,” she said. “So the question is how can we incorporate that capital technology into making the market more efficient, transparent and fair?”
She filed an enforcement lawsuit with the SEC, claiming that many of the people, including broker fraud, market manipulation, and fraudulent reports, could be prevented if the transaction is live and transparent and there are fewer intermediaries needed.
“Many of the industry has been seeking regulatory clarity for years because not only is it exposed to the constant threat of enforcement actions and criminal charges, but it is easier to distinguish between good actors by having a clear structure rather than a way to regulate the industry,” she said.
“Sometimes clarity is more important than what the law actually says, as companies find ways to work for it,” she said.
Le hopes that US lawmakers will build new resources for market regulators when they assume crypto monitoring, but these agencies will need to expand their expertise as they “can’t regulate things you don’t understand.”
“In particular, CFTC will need to really do better resources when it comes to gaining a lot of this new authority over the crypto spot market,” she pointed out. “They aren’t there right now.”
Cryptography is Capitol Hill’s number one priority. Despite some set-offs, as politics and the interests of President Donald Trump’s own code are hindering that path.
“The wind is on the back of the industry right now. If we can get the law right, we will unleash a golden age of financial innovation,” Le said.
Read more: Former SEC Chief Counsel says its crypto compliance rules need to be clarified
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