By George Ward
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman, Gary Gensler, has criticized Congress for his approach to overseeing the digital asset industry. Several crypto tokens and exchanges have taken the fall throughout most of 2022, and lawmakers are concerned about regulatory lapses so far.
Gary Gensler Miscues Latest Collapse
However, a United States policymaker, Tom Emmer, noted that Congress is more concerned about the plan the SEC chair has adopted.
Emmer states that lawmakers have been bothered by Gensler’s aggressive and erratic approach toward the crypto space since March 2022. So far, the industry has witnessed the collapse of three top exchanges: Celsius, Voyager Capital, Terra, and FTX.
Gensler’s regulatory enforcement has been a topic of discussion for some time. That explains why crypto exchanges continue to challenge the commission’s powers to regulate the industry.
The aggregate market cap of the crypto market has plummeted to $840 billion from its all-time high of $3 trillion as of November 2021. This implies that about $2 trillion has been wiped out of the digital asset space.
Following the crash of the Terra LUNA ecosystem, many believe that the crisis would have triggered a response from the SEC to develop comprehensive regulatory guidelines for the market.
However, the SEC boss has failed in this regard, and the crypto space witnessed another major collapse in less than six months after the previous one. Currently, the latest failure has put a dent in the reputation of the market, with investors uncertain about the future of a once-promising sector.
SEC Chair To Appear Before Congress
The lawmaker noted that the US Congress relies on data from reputable firms to have a perfect picture of the crypto market’s fundamental issues. Hence, it doesn’t take cognizance of stories from media outlets to gain insight into the SEC agenda.
Accordingly, Emmer noted that the lawmakers are looking forward to Gensler’s public testimony before the House Committee on financial services. However, keen observers believe that the SEC can help the former FTX CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, find some relief from the current crisis.
According to reports, Bankman-Fried once donated money to commission members while pushing for the implementation of the Digital Commodity Consumer Protection Act (DCCPA).
The call for regulating the crypto industry in the United States has been met with half-hearted actions by the concerned authorities. Nevertheless, Gensler wants the commission to have jurisdiction over all crypto assets because he sees all tokens as securities.
By contrast, many industry players want the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to oversee the crypto space instead of the SEC.