SEC Chairman Requests Additional Resources To Handle Crypto Sector

• Gensler also spoke at the hearing on the current rules that may be applied to digital assets. 
• The SEC has been cracking down increasingly hard on cryptocurrency businesses.

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler testified before the House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday, pleading for more resources to address the growing issue of non-compliance in the cryptocurrency industry. Gensler said that the SEC’s resources for investigating emerging crypto problems are “stretched thin” at the moment.

Gensler described the state of the cryptocurrency markets in the present tense as the “Wild West” in his testimony. He said that this noncompliance problem was systemic, putting investor assets in serious danger.

Regulations Already Exist Claim

In addition, he stressed the significance of the SEC growing to meet the sophistication of dishonest players as the financial markets have become more expansive and complicated. Gensler admitted that the agency now has more resources, but emphasized that even more could be used to fight the non-compliance that is rampant in the crypto industry.

Gensler also spoke at the hearing on the current rules that may be applied to digital assets. According to him, those trying to raise capital already have transparency rules that are written into the laws regulating securities.

Gensler stated:

The regulations actually already exist, sir. They’re called the securities regulation, and so there are disclosure regulations for when somebody tries to raise money from the public.

Gensler made it apparent throughout his short speech that he considers the overwhelming majority of coins and tokens in the crypto market to be securities, with Bitcoin being the only exception. After the dramatic and unexpected collapse of the digital asset exchange FTX in November, the SEC has been cracking down increasingly hard on some of the most well-known cryptocurrency businesses.