U.S. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler Proposes for Higher Crypto Exchange Regulations
In the latest development, U.S. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler spoke of the regulatory actions required in the cryptocurrency space. Gensler stressed on the need to introduce stronger regulations on the function of crypto exchanges.
As reported by Reuters, Genselr’s comments came while speaking at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s annual conference. Gensler added: ”This is a quite volatile, one might say highly volatile, asset class, and the investing public would benefit from more investor protection on the crypto exchanges”.
Gensler also expressed his interest on working with the Congress and other regulatory bodies to fill the gaps in investor protection. Gensler added that the SEC needs to provide crypto exchanges investors the same levels protection as the investors on Nasdaq of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
The SEC chairman added: “If you placed an order on an app, and you said, 'Alright, I want to buy a stock,' there are rules that protect you that somebody won’t use your order and get ahead of you. [...] So, it’s trying to bring the similar protections to the exchanges where you trade crypto assets as you might expect at the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq.”
The SEC, however, notes that the regulator faces bigger challenges in regulating the crypto industry. Gensler said that financially the SEC is quite “under-resourced” in comparison to some of the big players of the industry. “We only spend about 16% or 17% of our budget, about $325 million a year, on technology, which is less than probably some large firms spend in a month. Some of them even spend that much in two weeks,” he noted.
Genseler also added that there have been several cryptocurrencies in the market that are currently “non-compliant” with the securities laws. Gesler added:
“I think that there’s gaps in our current system...there are many crypto tokens that do come under the securities laws, and our agencies are trying to enforce the laws but there’s thousands of tokens and we’ve only been able to bring seventy-five actions,(sic). I would think if we could work with Congress to try to bring investor protection where these - sometimes commodities, sometimes securities - are trading on the platforms”.