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PRESS RELEASE | Blockchain privacy and financial oversight are colliding in an unprecedented public showdown. On October 17, 2025, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will convene citizens, industry experts, and other stakeholders in Washington, D.C., for a public roundtable discussion, according to the SEC’s official website.
This is a press release submitted to BitPinas.
The primary objective is to gather proposals that can guide future action in regulating digital assets, with a focus on privacy-preserving, transparency-preserving, and consumer-protection mechanisms.
The hearing offers a forum in which different stakeholders are able to make their arguments directly and comparatively to others, such that the SEC is able to consider a wide range of views before making regulatory decisions.
As per an official release dated September 8, 2025, the SEC Working Group made a statement that four more roundtables would be conducted during the course of the year, including the session on October 17. Industry experts observe that public consultations of this nature generally have an impact on regulatory priorities and interpretive drafts in the range of 6 to 18 months.
When and Where: Schedule, Venue, and Streaming
The meeting is scheduled for October 17, 2025, from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM (ET) at the SEC headquarters, 100 F Street, NE, Washington, DC. In the Philippines, the time corresponds to 1:00 AM to 4:00 AM (PHT) on October 18, 2025. The session will be open to the public and streamed on the SEC’s official website to allow for remote participation.
The conference is one of a series of roundtable meetings initiated in 2025 by the SEC Crypto Task Force aimed at soliciting input and recommendations before possibly developing policy proposals.
Why it Matters: Possible Regulatory Effect
The timing of this debate is important since it happens at the confluence of AML/KYC regulations, on-chain analysis, and privacy-enhancing technologies. Previous regulation strategies, based on a strong emphasis on surveillance, caused apprehension regarding a chilling effect on innovation.
Developers and users often avoided compliance-heavy tools, turning instead to fully anonymous and unregulated alternatives. Public discussion in forums such as this can assist in balancing investigative requirements with right to privacy, calling for solutions that preserve openness without inhibiting innovation.
While the roundtable will not itself develop new rules, its recommendations will shape compliance priorities and standards that impinge on exchanges, wallets, blockchain protocols, and developers.
This is especially important for tokens like the Snorter token, a blockchain platform that is making a name for itself in the Philippines. Clarity from the SEC would determine how Filipino developers and investors engage with tokens like this one safely, but according to international best practices in security and regulation.
Privacy, Oversight, and Accountability
As per the official release, the agenda will include technical and legal issues of operational significance.
Important issues are privacy technologies, including measures aimed at safeguarding user information through means such as selective auditability or zero-knowledge proofs; financial oversight, concentrating on establishing the limits, proportionality, and boundaries of surveillance actions to avoid abuse and financial crime; and transparency and security, considering how to provide adequate traceability without revealing sensitive data.
The agenda will further touch on the obligation of intermediaries, such as the role of platforms, infrastructure providers, and on-chain analytics services, as well as the impact on markets and innovation, examining how regulatory choices will affect the competitiveness of the U.S. ecosystem.
Context and Background
This roundtable is part of a broader public consultation process launched in 2025. In previous initiatives, the SEC developed technical dossiers covering information standards, market oversight, and requirements for registered entities. What sets this session apart is its explicit focus on the tradeoff between privacy and oversight, particularly in the on-chain economy where data flows are transparent yet sensitive.
The results of the session will depend on the quality of input from participants and how well it can be turned into practical advice. The SEC is asking for ideas from many types of people, including investors, developers, exchanges, and academics, to make sure any future rules are both useful and forward-looking.
Where the Balance Plays Out
The scope of traceability is a central challenge in blockchain regulation. Over-monitoring will drive users towards privacy-only products, lowering cooperation with regulated players and inhibiting law enforcement. Conversely, permissive legislation will undermine consumer protection and lower the capability of investigations.
Setting intermediary liability is another key consideration. How blame is assigned to platforms, wallets, and analytics providers will affect compliance cost, access to markets, and business models.
For instance, adopting typical technical standards such as logging, attestations, and random audit procedures can decrease information asymmetries and increase trust without impeding innovation. These technologies enable compliance requirements and privacy safeguards to coexist.
The Role of the Crypto Task Force
The SEC Crypto Task Force plans roundtable discussions, stakeholder dialogues, thematic forums, and calls for written submissions. As a conduit between technology and policy, the Task Force takes technical input and converts it into hypotheses of regulation and injects discipline into discussion.
Through staging these forums, the Task Force makes sure that policymakers comprehend the real-world implications of suggested rules on actual business and technology practices.
What to Expect Next
Following the roundtable, the SEC will collect comments and written contributions from participants. These inputs are critical for evaluating potential regulations or interpretive guidance.
Additional consultations, technical analyses, and industry discussions are likely before final decisions are made, following the gradual, measured approach already tested in 2025.
For Philippine crypto enthusiasts and Snorter token investors, staying informed about these developments is essential. Insights from the roundtable may influence global rules that affect local participation and investment safety.
By keeping up with these debates, developers and investors can more reliably expect shifts and adjust strategies in sync with evolving compliance norms.
This press release is published on BitPinas: Inside the SEC’s Crypto Roundtable: What Filipino Investors Should Know
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