Chairman of US’s SEC Insists Every Crypto Service Provider Should Be Regulated for Investors’ Sake
Under the auspices of Gary Gensler, the Chairman of the Securities & Exchange Commission of the US (SEC), the regulator is trying to bring crypto service providers i.e. crypto trading platforms within the scope and ambit of “investor protection remit”. He suggests that if crypto service providers do not agree to come under the regulated regime then the year 2022 would be yet another year where investors will remain at stake.
In a virtual press meeting, Chairman of SEC, Gary Gensler, stressed the need for crypto regulations. During the press conference, he also gave an outline of the priority agendas of the SEC in the year 2022.
He suggested that each crypto service provider in the United States will soon be volunteering to come under the regulatory oversight of the SEC. He was positive that in the coming months, crypto trading platforms will be taking steps towards the objective. He stated that supervision of crypto service providers is essential for the investors’ sake. He argued that crypto investors need protection in the same manner as has been available to investors of stock trading. Gensler argued further that investors’ vulnerability calls for regulatory oversight. If the call is not considered, then 2022 will be another year in which investors will continue to be exposed to grave risks.
Since the day he took over the charge as SEC’s Chairman, Gensler had been stressing the need to have regulations in place. He wants that each crypto trading platform in the US should, on its own, volunteer itself as a supervisor for the sake of the investors. According to thenextbitcoin, he also believes that many crypto service providers are unaware of the fact that they are in fact trading in securities. He pointed out that when somebody is trading in securities, then registration with SEC is a must. In the absence of mandatory registration, enforcement action can be initiated against the non-registered person/entity.
Even in the middle of last year, Gensler had insisted that regulations for crypto service providers must be set up on an urgent basis. For this, he even sought the assistance of Congress to take up the matter on a priority basis. He suggested that there is a huge vacuum in crypto investment which makes investors vulnerable to unidentified risks. Later on, in December, he again made a statement in which he accused crypto of being an instrument of committing fraud. His statement was acknowledged and supported by many politicians amongst the US Parliamentarians.
On the other hand, when Gensler was appointed as the Chairman, the crypto community had high hopes for him. They believed that Gensler is fully complacent with the concept of crypto and would therefore be a crucial induction into the SEC. So far he hasn’t taken any adverse decisions against crypto space or crypto service providers. Fortunately, it was under his regime, when the first Bitcoin ETF was approved in the US by SEC.