Is SEC Chair Gensler’s stance on crypto justified, or does it show regulatory bias?
- SEC’s recent actions have raised regulatory concerns. Gensler’s comments highlighted growing uncertainty within the cryptocurrency space.
It’s becoming increasingly apparent that the SEC is gearing up to tighten regulations on cryptocurrencies.
Legal disputes with numerous crypto firms, from Kraken to Consensys, and most recently Robinhood, underscore this trend. But don’t rely solely on AMBCrypto’s outlook — take a look for yourself.
SEC Chair’s bold move
Recently, SEC Chair Gary Gensler expressed his frustration with the “outsized ratio” of crypto-related inquiries compared to traditional finance.
Speaking on “Squawk Box,” he highlighted the overwhelming number of questions he receives about cryptocurrency. He said,
“Crypto is a small piece of our overall markets. But, it’s an outsized piece of the scams and frauds and problems in the markets.”
Additionally, Gensler’s comparison between the massive $110 trillion capital market regulated by the SEC and the relatively smaller $2.4 trillion crypto market highlights significant concerns.
Ignorance is bliss! Is it?
Moreover, this isn’t the first time Chair Gensler has tried to avoid questions related to crypto. During a separate interview with CNBC on the 14th of February, he sidestepped similar inquiries and said,
“You have a whole central bank, and support for one currency, generally per economic region, which is not the case with Bitcoin.”
He even went so far as to criticize Bitcoin [BTC], stating,
“Bitcoin has the leading market share in ransomware, and that’s publicly known. It’s the token of choice for ransomware.”
All these instances further confirm that the SEC might be looking to come down to crypto more harshly. Perhaps that is why Jake Chervinsky, chief legal officer of Variant, suggested in a recent “Unchained” stream,
“I think it really is time for Congress to step in and decide what the law should be instead of leaving us all in this sort of haze of regulatory uncertainty.”
Additionally, when Chair Gensler was pressed about the SEC’s Wells notice to Robinhood, accusing its crypto services of breaching securities laws, he said,
“I can’t speak to any one company.”
He further emphasized the lack of essential disclosures for crypto investors, and added,
“Many of those tokens are securities under the law of the land, as interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court.”
Is SEC overstepping?
In response to this Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s CLO took to X (Formerly Twitter) and noted,
“Please stop misleading the market—tokens are NOT securities. Their pleadings notwithstanding, your own attorneys have admitted this in court.”
All in all, these exchanges paint a perplexing image of the SEC. Ergo, as events unfold, people are eager to know who is SEC’s next target.
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