Senator Moreno: 'accredited investor' definition and its fairness
Senator Moreno led a rapid exchange focused on how the SEC's 'accredited investor' rule works and whom it excludes. Mr. Blass explained the practical meaning: an 'accredited investor' is treated as a 'sophisticated investor' who may participate in private offerings, and the only objective test in current use is a wealth/income threshold. During the colloquy several income/net worth figures surfaced verbatim as examples offered in the hearing: 'It's like $200,000 and a million.'; 'That $250,000.'; and references to '$250,000 of net net worth' and '$200,000 income' as the kinds of numeric cutoffs used.
Senator Moreno pressed the panel on the implication that working Americans (examples named: police officer, nurse, EMT, auto mechanic, sales consultant) making '$50,000', '$60,000', or '$75,000' would not be considered 'sophisticated' under the current regime. He criticized the rule as 'an extraordinarily paternalistic view of the American people' and said the government thereby signals it 'doesn't think they're very smart or very sophisticated' based on wealth alone. Mr. Dumas defended concern about risk and disclosure for privately offered assets, emphasizing the potential for predatory inclusion and the need for investors to 'appreciate the risk'.
The hearing shifted to digital assets when Senator Moreno challenged Mr. Dumas's estimate of crypto ownership by race. Mr. Dumas initially guessed '2%, 3%' for black Americans; Senator Moreno cited a Pew study and contested that figure with specific data: '20%' of black Americans hold digital assets, '19%' for Hispanics, and '18%' for whites; by contrast '66%' of whites hold stocks, '39%' of black Americans hold stocks, and '28%' of Hispanics hold stocks. Moreno argued those differences mean limiting access to digital-asset offerings via the accredited-investor test would disproportionately restrict access for the '6.6 million black Americans' who hold crypto. Mr. Dumas questioned the Pew methodology, while Moreno stated he would place the Pew research into the hearing record and the clerk accepted it 'Without objection?'.
Bottom line: the exchange framed the accredited-investor definition as an income/net-worth threshold that many senators view as arbitrary and paternalistic, while also highlighting empirical racial differences in retail exposure to digital assets that could make any access restriction consequential for specific communities.