SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce will leave the agency on October 2, 2026, reducing the commission to Chairman Paul Atkins and Commissioner Mark Uyeda unless another member is sworn in first. The two remaining commissioners can conduct agency business under the SEC’s quorum rules, although a disagreement or recusal would prevent action on a matter. Peirce, who joined the SEC in 2018 and led its Crypto Task Force from early 2025, became known in digital-asset markets as "Crypto Mom" for opposing an enforcement-first approach to crypto regulation. She will join Regent University School of Law as an associate professor in November. Her exit does not affect the SEC’s September Innovation Exemption for certain tokenized NMS-stock venues, crypto-asset FAQs issued by the Division of Corporation Finance, or the proposed Regulation Crypto Assets package, which remains open for public comment. The Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act also remains stalled in the Senate, leaving broader jurisdictional questions between the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission unresolved.