SEC Chair Warns Crypto Could Become Ultimate Surveillance Tool, Seeks Balanced Path

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SEC Chair Paul Atkins stated that a path exists to balance national security with individual privacy in the crypto sector, though he warned that excessive government overreach poses a significant risk. He made these remarks at the sixth crypto roundtable of the SEC’s Crypto Task Force.

Atkins cautioned that blockchains are inherently effective at linking transactions to their senders. If mismanaged, he argued, crypto could “become the most powerful financial surveillance architecture ever invented.”

He elaborated that treating every wallet as a broker and every protocol as a surveillance node would transform the ecosystem into a “financial panopticon.”

Despite these stark warnings, Atkins expressed confidence in finding a middle ground. He asserted that through collaboration, a framework can be shaped where technological and financial progress does not require the sacrifice of personal freedoms.