The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is focusing on bringing cryptocurrency exchanges “inside the investor protection remit,” Chairman Gary Gensler has revealed. “If the trading platforms don’t come into the regulated space, it’d be another year of the public being vulnerable,” he stressed.
SEC focuses on Regulating Crypto Exchanges
The chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, talked about crypto regulation and the SEC’s priorities in a virtual press conference Wednesday.
Gensler said that he’s hopeful cryptocurrency trading platforms will take steps to become more directly regulated in the coming months. He stressed that crypto traders need to be protected in the same way as they are when trading stocks, or any other financial instrument.
“I’ve asked staff to look at every way to get these platforms inside the investor protection remit,” the SEC boss revealed, elaborating:
If the trading platforms don’t come into the regulated space, it’d be another year of the public being vulnerable.
Gensler repeatedly stated the necessity to regulate cryptocurrency trading platforms. Many of these traders are not registered and may be trading securities. Last May, he stated that cryptocurrency exchanges needed more regulation. He asked Congress to address the issue.
“We don’t have enough investor protection in crypto finance, issuance, trading, or lending,” he warned in September. “At this time, it is more like the Wild West or the old world of ‘buyer beware’ that existed before the securities laws were enacted.”
In December, the chairman said that the crypto asset class is “rife with fraud, scams, and abuse in certain applications,” emphasizing, “Right now, we just don’t have enough investor protection in crypto.”
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