The head of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) spoke before the Banking Committee of the US Senate and spoke about the agency’s policy in the field of crypto regulation.
Gary Gensler said his regulator’s mission is threefold: protecting investors, promoting capital formation, and ensuring the orderly and efficient operation of markets. The commission has not only successfully served as a financial regulator, but has also become the “duty policeman” keeping an eye on voters, a senior official said. It was about the detention of the former executive director of the FTX exchange, Ryan Salame, accused of violating the financing of an election campaign.
Banking Committee Chairman Senator Sherrod Brown praised the SEC’s work in revitalizing the cryptocurrency industry and protecting investors.
“Recently, we have been hearing a lot of unsubstantiated statements from participants in the digital asset industry about the low efficiency of the SEC. Allegedly, the commission proposes unnecessary rules that are impossible or too difficult to comply with. But we must remember that American markets are the largest in the world, and American investors deserve transparent, fair and honest conditions. We have strong investor protection and an effective regulator in the SEC. We still have a lot of work to do together to protect American investors,” the senator said.
However, not all colleagues shared the opinion of the chairman of the banking committee. Senator Tim Scott questioned the effectiveness of the SEC and its chairman. The agency has been weak in its response to government investigations, even as a series of high-profile bankruptcies, such as the collapse of FTX, brought the country to the brink of the collapse of the digital asset industry:
“Your agency has failed in its obligation to be transparent and promptly respond to Congressional demands. I have serious concerns about how effectively you are leading the SEC.”
Senator Cynthia Lummis expressed a similar opinion about Gensler’s tenure as SEC. She expressed particular concern about the Commission’s conservative stance in bankruptcy cases of major cryptocurrency companies, and also questioned Gensler’s decision to issue an SEC Bulletin that would require public companies to include digital assets under their control on their balance sheets.
Earlier, the chairman and co-founder of Ripple Labs, Chris Larsen, accused the SEC and the administration of US President Joe Biden of destroying the cryptocurrency regulatory system in the country, and the US risks losing its leadership in this industry.
