Gary Gensler, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), said the SEC is working with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on crypto regulation. He continued by saying that the SEC is “trying to work with a variety of crypto platforms, exchanges, and lending platforms” to protect investors.
In an interview with Bloomberg this week, Gary Gensler said, “we have a broad agenda, and crypto fits into it.”
In response to a question about crypto regulation, the SEC boss explained that “the agency is looking out for investors,” emphasizing that “a number of these tokens have the characteristics of securities.” According to him, the public is provided with money, and they expect profits due to the efforts of others.
‘As part of our efforts to get investor protection for the public, we brought a number of actions. We’re trying to work with various crypto platforms, exchanges, lending platforms,’ Gensler further added.
If a platform has 75, or a hundred, or 5,000 tokens on it, it is possible that a significant number of them, or maybe a majority, is what’s called security, Gensler said. Gensler has also stated that crypto is one of the top priorities at the SEC, as evidenced by the SEC taking at least 97 enforcement actions so far against cryptocurrency companies and individuals.
“The SEC will continue to pursue investor protection, and if that requires bringing greater enforcement actions, then we will do so. But it would be better if these platforms would come in, work with us, and be governed by securities laws.”
According to him, the laws are pretty clear as laid down in the 1930s, and we have the capability of working with crypto exchanges by using various authorities” to customize some of the existing rules for the crypto industry. He acknowledged that crypto exchange platforms are not the same as traditional ones.
Additionally, Gensler expressed the view that “working with Congress on some issues would be helpful.” Nevertheless, Gensler stated, “unless Congress orders otherwise, there has to be investor protection.”
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) will assist us where there are commodity tokens. While many of these tokens are securities, some may fall under their remit. Our agencies work together as federal agencies.
