SEC’s Hester Peirce to join Regent Law in November

Hester Peirce, a two-term commissioner at the Securities and Exchange Commission who led the agency’s crypto task force and is widely known as “Crypto Mom,” will leave the SEC to join Regent University School of Law as an associate professor beginning in November, Regent University announced Tuesday.

Peirce joined the SEC in January 2018 after nomination by President Donald Trump and Senate confirmation in December 2017. She was confirmed for a second term in 2020 and had previously been nominated in 2015 by President Barack Obama for a Republican seat that the Senate did not act on. Her SEC term officially expired in June 2025; commissioners may remain in office for about 18 months after a term ends if successors are not confirmed.

The university announced Peirce will teach and support scholarship in federal litigation, securities regulation and digital assets.

Her departure will reduce the commission to two Republican members: Chair Paul Atkins and Mark Uyeda. Caroline Crenshaw, the SEC’s most recent Democratic commissioner, left in January 2025, 18 months after her term ended. The White House had not nominated replacements for the open SEC seats as of Wednesday.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is also understrength. Michael Selig is the lone commissioner and serves as chair of a five-member panel. The CLARITY Act, a market-structure bill pending in Congress, is expected to transfer a number of crypto market responsibilities from the SEC to the CFTC. Members of Congress have urged the administration to nominate bipartisan slates to fill vacancies at both agencies.

Since President Trump took office in January 2025, the SEC has changed its enforcement approach toward digital assets and dropped several investigations and enforcement actions involving crypto firms. Leaders at the two regulators have indicated they will coordinate to reduce overlapping oversight responsibilities.