WASHINGTON— The crypto market needs more regulation to protect investors and greater funding and authority are needed to provide that oversight, according to Gary Gensler, recently named to head the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Gensler told Congress the crypto market would need a “cop on the beat” to ensure investor protection.
Gensler is a former Goldman Sachs executive who is perhaps best known in Washington for his tireless work at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, where he devised the regulatory framework for the multitrillion-dollar derivatives market
Gensler’s remarks to Congress signal that U.S. regulators are going to start enforcing stricter regulations on the market, Be In Crypto said. His confirmation to the post gives Democrats a 3-2 majority on the Commission.
‘Time for Similar Protections’
Gensler told the House Committee on Appropriations that the regulator had only taken action 75 times against projects and assets that are operating as securities. He notes there are thousands of such assets out in the market, many of which do not comply with securities laws.
“We have the SEC trying to protect against fraud in manipulation [in the stock market]… Not so in the crypto world, and so it’s trying to bring the similar protections to the exchanges where you trade crypto assets, as you might expect on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq,” he said.