Although the SEC could still appeal to the Supreme Court, that it is not asking for a rehearing before the Fifth Circuit would seem to indicate that it is resigned to the defeat. Further, it may be reasonable to question whether the SEC would want to antagonize the private fund industry further in the period immediately before an election.  

As previously argued, (see reprinted comment below,) this is not a case of the SEC doing the right thing for the wrong reason: it is the SEC doing the right thing for no reason. That the SEC would reverse its position on whether Ethereum might be a security without either any explanation of its reasoning or any explanation of its determination that Ethereum is not a security (while maintaining that other crypto assets are securities) is a dereliction of its obligations.

–(the date the…

With regard to the issue of preemption, referred to in his speech as "polarization," the following comment by Mr. Hsu is notable: "To varying degrees the culture wars, identity politics, and weaponization of finance are pushing toward greater and greater fragmentation of the U.S. financial system. Increasingly banks are being asked by states to pick a side in service of performative politics rather than deliberative policy."

The clear implication of this is that it is the States that…

The numbers say that it is more attractive to be an investment adviser than to be a broker-dealer. This seems likely to be a product of the regulatory burden of compliance with broker-dealer regulation, as opposed to investment adviser regulation. It is worth asking whether the decrease in the number of broker-dealers, as opposed to advisers, is a positive for retail investors.

Perhaps the most surprising statistic, at least by size if not direction, is the relative performance of…