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Dan Berkovitz, who currently serves on the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, will join the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as general counsel beginning Nov. 1, the SEC said Tuesday. Berkovitz had previously announced he was leaving the CFTC effective Oct. 15.
Berkovitz made waves in the crypto community when he made critical remarks about decentralized finance, or a collection of applications that enable users to deposit digital assets, earn returns, borrow and loan money using computer protocols that eliminate the need for financial intermediaries.
In a June speech, Berkovitz said a purely decentralized financial system that eliminates institutions like banks, brokers and exchanges threatens to turn the U.S. economy into a “Hobbesian marketplace with each person looking out for themselves,” because regulators can only enforce bans against money laundering and fraud, and recover ill-gotten funds for consumers, by holding intermediaries accountable.
“I’m thrilled to once again work with [Berkovitz] on matters essential to our financial markets,” SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said in a press release, noting that Berkovitz served as general counsel at the CFTC when Gensler led the agency.
Gensler himself has recently drawn the ire of some in the crypto community for recent comments suggesting that he believes stablecoins, or cryptocurrencies that are designed to maintain their value relative to the U.S. dollar, are within the SEC’s regulatory jurisdiction.
