Inside the SEC's Enforcement-First Era — From a Former Insider

Ashley Ebersole spent his early SEC years on the distributed ledger working group. He has a vantage on the agency's crypto enforcement era that very few industry voices have.At Paris Blockchain Week 2026, he sits with David Sencil to walk through the embodiment theory courts later rejected, the asymmetric settlement pressure that forced startups to fold, and what tx is now building: the first FINRA-approved stock-token platform in the U.S.We cover:- The SEC's enforcement-first era and what it cost- The unlimited-budget settlement asymmetry- The embodiment theory and other rejected novel theories- What tx is building with FINRA-approved stock tokens- Why Gen Z is skipping traditional brokerage accountsChapters:00:24 - Bitcoin.com Live News Desk at Paris Blockchain Week01:28 - Background of Ashley Ebersole02:11 - SEC and New Technologies03:16 - Awareness of Bitcoin and Crypto04:06 - Experience at the SEC05:04 - Changes in SEC Leadership06:14 - Regulatory Challenges and Theories07:07 - Enforcement First Approach08:05 - Legal Theories and Court Rejections10:11 - Government Influence on Settlements12:06 - Bias Against Crypto14:02 - Legal Challenges and Court Decisions16:08 - Misunderstandings About Tokenization18:03 - Generational Differences in Financial Products20:25 - Predictions for On-Chain Real-World Assets21:42 - Understanding Tokenization 24:19 - TX and Tokenization Platform27:06 - Questions About Tokenized Stocks29:59 - Regulatory Approaches and Tokenization33:23 - Jurisdictional Differences in Tokenization36:30 - Future Discussions and Closing RemarksFollow for more conversations on crypto, markets, and the future of finance.