The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will host another crypto regulation roundtable on April 11, attracting participation from executives and advocates who previously clashed with the agency.
The session, titled Between a Block and a Hard Place: Tailoring Regulation for Crypto Trading, will be hosted at the SEC’s Washington D.C. headquarters and live-streamed via its website.
Its panel composition signals a shift in the Commission’s strategy under Acting Chairman Mark Uyeda and Commissioner Hester Peirce’s Crypto Task Force, seeking insight from firms once in regulatory crosshairs.
The roundtable will feature senior representatives from Uniswap Labs, Coinbase, Cumberland DRW, and Texture Capital, alongside financial academics and market infrastructure veterans. Many attendees represent firms or positions that have been involved in open disputes or enforcement actions with the SEC, showcasing the intentional recalibration of dialogue channels between the agency and the digital asset sector.
Legal Combatants Recast as Advisors
Among the most high-profile inclusions is Katherine Minarik, Chief Legal Officer at Uniswap Labs. Her company received a Wells Notice in 2024 for allegedly operating an unregistered exchange and broker platform. Before joining Uniswap, Minarik led litigation at Coinbase during its protracted battle with the SEC, which included an enforcement suit and investigatory probes.
The SEC has since dropped its case against Coinbase and closed its inquiry into Uniswap, potentially reflecting a strategic pivot toward engagement over litigation.
Similarly, Chelsea Pizzola, Associate General Counsel at Cumberland DRW, brings a background marked by enforcement tension. In October 2024, her firm faced an SEC lawsuit for executing billions in crypto trades allegedly without appropriate registration.
DRW has a track record of challenging regulatory boundaries, including a successful legal contest against the CFTC during Gary Gensler’s tenure. Pizzola has publicly described the firm’s failed attempts to register its crypto broker-dealer, underlining the unresolved frictions that now frame her role on the panel.
Greg Tusar, Coinbase’s Vice President of Institutional Product, will also appear, representing another firm formerly under SEC scrutiny. Coinbase had been one of the most prominent targets of “regulation by enforcement” tactics, a model now under reconsideration.
Expert Witnesses with Contested Histories
The roundtable will also feature Christine Parlour of UC Berkeley, a frequent academic contributor to DeFi discourse. Parlour’s prior attempt to serve as an expert witness in a crypto-related court proceeding was rebuffed by the court, which cited the potential to mislead jurors and a lack of methodological rigor. Despite this, she now joins a critical regulatory roundtable as a guest of the SEC.
Dave Lauer, Co-Founder of Urvin Finance and We the Investors, similarly has a contested record. Exchange operators have questioned his credibility as an expert witness in high-frequency trading litigation, critiquing his analysis’s foundational assumptions and sourcing.
Nevertheless, Lauer’s grassroots advocacy and prior testimony before the Senate Banking Committee give him standing in regulatory conversations, particularly regarding market fairness and transparency.
Regulatory Context Signals Policy Shift
The panelist selection coincides with the broader movement away from punitive enforcement and toward participatory regulation.
Recent SEC decisions to terminate actions against firms like Robinhood and Coinbase may be confirmation that the era of enforcement-led crypto oversight is waning. Paul Atkins, a former SEC Commissioner now nominated to return as Chairman, has advocated for pragmatic regulatory frameworks that clarify compliance expectations rather than impose retroactive penalties.
Commissioner Peirce’s Crypto Task Force has positioned the roundtable series as a mechanism to gather stakeholder feedback and explore nuanced approaches to rulemaking. The current session, one of several planned, represents a litmus test for whether the Commission is prepared to involve previously adversarial voices in designing the next iteration of crypto governance.
Nicholas Losurdo, a former SEC advisor and now a partner at Goodwin Procter LLP, will moderate the discussion. Losurdo’s role in bridging regulatory and industry perspectives may reflect the intended tone of the gathering: adversaries turned advisors, shaping a framework that may ultimately define the SEC’s future posture toward digital assets.
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