US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will hold its delayed roundtable on financial surveillance and privacy on December 15.
This lays the groundwork for one of the agency's most direct engagements to date with developers of privacy-focused cryptosystems.
Privacy Technologies
SEC said that the session will explore how privacy-preserving technologies work. It will also investigate how these tools intersect with existing surveillance expectations in financial markets.
Key Participants
Zooko Wilcox, founder of Zcash, is expected to present at the event. Other participants include Aleo Network Foundation CEO Alex Pruden, Predicate CEO Nikhil Raghuveera, and SpruceID founder Wayne Chang.
Their participation simultaneously underscores the agency's efforts to gather input from teams building zero-knowledge proofs, identity systems, and frameworks for private computation.
Furthermore, Hester Peirce, who leads the SEC's crypto group, said that the agency wants a clearer understanding of the tools shaping modern digital transactions. She added that new insights could help the financial agency rethink its oversight approach without limiting civil liberties.
"New technologies give us a new opportunity to calibrate financial surveillance methods to ensure the protection of our country and the freedoms that make America unique," she stated.
Her comments mark one of the clearest indications that the agency is considering how privacy infrastructure fits into broader digital asset policy.
Industry Perspective
Craig Salm, Chief Legal Officer at Grayscale, stated that the roundtable is also an opportunity for the industry to demonstrate that privacy protocols can coexist with regulatory goals.
Salm said that active engagement with decision-makers is essential for teams concerned about existential regulatory risk. He added that this kind of forum truly makes sense of the long-standing call for crypto companies to 'come in and talk to us.'
Interest in privacy tools has increased this year as regulators in several regions expand surveillance requirements. This trend has led many crypto users to adopt systems that obscure transaction details or limit data exposure.
The change is visible in market performance.
Artemis data shows that privacy-focused tokens have risen over 237% in 2025. The gains are partly driven by strong increases in Zcash, Monero, and other projects central to the debate.
The roundtable signals that the SEC now recognizes privacy technologies as a central part of the crypto market's structure. It also shows that political decisions made today will shape how these systems scale in the years ahead.
