U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler has called crypto “a highly speculative asset class” and a field that is “rife with fraud.” He stressed that there are far too many bad actors in crypto, noting that crypto platforms often commingle funds and trade against their customers.
Gary Gensler Says Crypto Field Rife With Fraud
The chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, slammed crypto in an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday.
“In this field of crypto investing, a lot of investors should be aware it’s not only a highly speculative asset class, it’s also one that they currently should not assume that they are getting the protections of the securities law, even though the securities laws apply to many of those tokens without prejudging anyone. But, you as investors are not getting the full, fair, and truthful disclosure,” the SEC chair cautioned.
Gensler added:
The platforms, the intermediaries are doing things that we would never in a day allow or think the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq would do.
“The platforms often are co-mingling and trading against you and have market makers that are on the other side of your trades. And we don’t allow that in the rest of our securities markets,” he continued.
The chairman of the SEC asserted:
Right now, this is a field rife with fraud, rife with hucksters … there are good-faith actors as well but there are far too many that aren’t.
The securities regulator recently requested a budget increase to address the risks posed by the crypto market. Gensler said in March that the SEC needs new tools, expertise, and resources to regulate the crypto industry.
Many people have criticized the SEC chairman for regulating the crypto industry by enforcement. U.S. Congressman Warren Davidson (R-OH) even introduced legislation to remove Gensler as the chairman of the SEC “to correct a long series of abuses.” The lawmaker said: “U.S. capital markets must be protected from a tyrannical chairman, including the current one.”
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