SEC chief, Gary Gensler, has revealed that the financial regulator would work hand-in-hand with crypto exchanges to register almost all crypto initial coin offerings (ICOs). Gensler made these remarks during the congressional hearing for FTC and SEC’s budgets on May 18, 2022.
The SEC chief noted that most of the coin offerings come under the purview of the SEC’s securities policy. Hence, “the SEC would deploy its enforcement tools (according to its regulatory policies) on these tokens.”
When a member of Congress asked him why the black minorities are the ones losing the most in the volatile crypto space, Gensler remarked that all communities, not just the black minorities but also the white majorities, aren’t protected against losses in the crypto space. Gensler also revealed that the SEC would be performing a thorough oversight function over the issuance market since nearly 8,000 digital asset tokens have been created from it.
The SEC has legal power over nearly all digital asset tokens – Gensler
Gensler added that there isn’t any legal power tussle with the commodity futures trading commission (CFTC) in performing oversight functions over crypto tokens. He said, “the CFTC can only have jurisdiction over commodity tokens with smaller market value. In contrast, the SEC has jurisdiction over commodity tokens with large market value, such as BTC. However, the SEC has legal power over the top commodity tokens.”
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The US Commodity Exchange Act clarifies that digital assets such as Bitcoin (BTC) are classified as commodities. Gensler further reiterated the speculative and highly volatile nature of digital assets and added that “…the public (investors in digital assets) aren’t protected.”
The huge growth of the crypto marketplace
In his opening remarks, the SEC chief stated that there are tens of millions of American investors in the crypto marketplace. Hence, they are exposed to huge risks because of the crypto market’s huge volatility and speculative…
