The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and its head Gary Gensler are bullies. They are bullies to the crypto industry and to everyone who tries to issue digital currencies to the common public.
Republicans Grill the SEC and Gary Gensler
The actions of Gensler have ultimately made him the subject of wrath amongst various members of Congress who don’t like that he’s persecuting rather than regulating players in the industry. They think he’s using the power he was given through his present position in an abusive way, and Gensler was recently grilled by various members of the House of Representatives, which is currently controlled by republicans.
Gensler was quick to defend himself and his actions in the hearing, claiming that members of the crypto arena have been among the most non-compliant ever. He stated:
Investors in the crypto market should benefit from the compliance with (the law). It’s the law. It’s really not a choice.
Despite his conviction, many republican members of the House weren’t buying his words and were quick to point out that when it comes to regulation, the crypto arena has long been the victim of low or non-existent clarity. They also said that Gensler and the SEC have been following the path of “regulation by enforcement,” and that they haven’t done enough to make the rules understandable.
They stated that the SEC is working to enforce laws on companies that they, themselves, either don’t know exist, or don’t assume will apply to them. It is thus the agency’s job to ensure that these laws are clear to all players. Chairman Patrick McHenry of North Carolina said:
Regulation by enforcement is not sufficient nor sustainable.
Prior to the hearing, republican lawmakers sent a letter to Gensler and his team criticizing the agency for having a simple, “come in and register” attitude for all digital currency companies. The letter reads:
Without clear rules of the road, your push for firms to ‘come in and register’ is a willful misrepresentation of the SEC’s non-existent registration process. The only entity to blame for the lack of registrants is the SEC itself.
We’ve Done Well!
Despite this clear distaste towards his actions, Gensler was quick to jump to his own defense and say that he and his staff have done well when it comes to keeping the crypto industry in check. He stated:
I’m very proud of what we’ve done. We put out 46 proposals to date… and on average, it’s been more than 70 days from the time we vote it out, we put it on our website, and we have a formal end to a comment period, but then we get comments after that, and we [have] meetings after that, and we engage actively with trade associations and market participants.
