SEC Chairman Gary Gensler also made interesting statements about the cryptocurrency market in his testimony at the Senate Banking Committee Session.
Here are the highlights of Gary Gensler's cryptocurrency statements from the session:
- Citing the Grayscale decision, Senator Bill Hagerty asked Gensler what they would need to see for the SEC to approve a BTC Spot ETF. Gensler responded: “We are still reviewing this decision. We have multiple applications… We are reviewing them and awaiting the team's recommendations.”
- While talking to Mark Warner about AI deep fakes, Gary Gensler brought up the fake news that he would resign as SEC chairman in July. Gensler said he speculated that the person behind the rumor wanted to influence stock market or crypto prices.
- Gensler said deep fakes and artificial intelligence are a 'real risk' for markets.
- Unfortunately, there is a serious mismatch in the crypto space right now; This field is rife with fraud, abuse and malfeasance.
- Chairman Sherrod Brown defended Gensler's sanctions against crypto: “Since you testified last year, Mr. Chairman, the collapse of FTX has shown how dangerous crypto can be. But FTX was not an isolated bad apple. It was just the most glaring example of the problems in crypto. Congress is digital “We need to clean up fraud and fraud as we evaluate asset regulation. I am pleased that the SEC is using its tools to enforce and abuse the law.”
- Senator Cortez Masto asked whether the SEC has enough staff to address fraud in crypto. Gensler: “The organization is only 3% larger than it was eight years ago, so we are not big enough.”
- Gensler attacked crypto once again: “I've been in the financial world for 44 years. I've never seen an area so riddled with abuse. It's frightening.”
- Senator Sinema: We saw that you have legal problems regarding cryptocurrencies. How do you assess the agency's legal risk in terms of the breadth of your rulemaking strategy? Gensler: We are committed to acting within our authority and as interpreted by the courts.
The following statements were included in the statement prepared by Gensler:
“Given this industry's widespread non-compliance with securities laws, it is not surprising that we are seeing many problems in these markets. We've seen this story before. It's reminiscent of what we experienced in the 1920s, before the federal securities laws came into force.
“Given that most crypto tokens are subject to securities laws, it follows that most crypto brokers must also comply with securities laws.”
*This is not investment advice.