U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler says he wants to bring crypto exchanges under the umbrella of regulation this year.
Gensler says in a new virtual press conference that he hopes crypto exchanges will take steps towards becoming regulated in the coming months, Bloomberg reports.
Explains the SEC chair,
“I’ve asked staff to look at every way to get these platforms inside the investor protection remit.
If the trading platforms don’t come into the regulated space, it’d be another year of the public being vulnerable.”
Gensler told the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs last year that cryptocurrency investors are vulnerable to scams and other illegal activities due to the lack of “enough investor protection” in the space. He also likened crypto assets to securities that would fall under the jurisdiction of the SEC, according to Bloomberg.
“Currently, we just don’t have enough investor protection in crypto finance, issuance, trading, or lending.
Frankly, at this time, it’s more like the Wild West or the old world of ‘buyer beware’ that existed before the securities laws were enacted.
This asset class is rife with fraud, scams, and abuse in certain applications. We can do better.”
However, the SEC chairman has also acknowledged that the underlying blockchain technology “has been a catalyst for change around the globe.”
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