- On Thursday, the Chairman Gary Gensler went back on the offensive against those in the crypto industry by repeating his demands that crypto exchanges, brokers and attorneys in the digital-asset industry comply with securities regulations.
- On the other hand, crypto enthusiasts say forcing digital-asset firms to comply with traditional registration and oversight requirements could effectively kill businesses.
Cryptocurrency traders have been put on notice that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission considers a range of widely traded digital assets to be securities, a position that could impose regulatory requirements that observers say could be crippling to the industry.
On Thursday, the Chairman Gary Gensler went back on the offensive against those in the crypto industry by repeating his demands that crypto exchanges, brokers and attorneys in the digital-asset industry comply with securities regulations.
Gensler’s latest salvo is only his latest push to crack down on an asset class that he says often operates in legal gray areas.
In remarks prepared for Thursday’s Practising Law Institute’s SEC Speaks event in Washington, Gensler noted that “the public deserves the same protections from your clients that they get with other issuers of securities.”
Gensler added that any legislation should be done in a way that maintains the SEC’s oversight of “crypto security tokens” and those assets make up the bulk of digital assets that are currently traded.
On the other hand, crypto enthusiasts say forcing digital-asset firms to comply with traditional registration and oversight requirements could effectively kill businesses.
Furthermore, some argue the “decentralized” nature of digital-asset trading also makes it difficult to obtain the types of information the SEC typically requires.
