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Gary Gensler held accountable for his aggressive regulation of cryptocurrencies

by Tim

Tuesday afternoon, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler was heard by Patrick McHenry, the chairman of the Financial Services Committee, to testify about his aggressive actions against the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Are these the beginnings of a relaxation of rules in the US

Gary Gensler was heard by the Financial Services Committee

Tuesday afternoon in the United States, Gary Gensler, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had to testify before the Financial Services Committee regarding his controversial actions regarding the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Indeed, this division of the House of Representatives has authority over the SEC.

Ahead of the hearing, Chairman Patrick McHenry had sent a letter to Gary Gensler, in which he denounced the fact that the latter lacked congruence between his words and his actions. He called for crypto platforms to register, but failed to show a clear path to do so.

This notion was again highlighted during the opening speech of the session:

At the same time, you have refused to clarify whether digital assets offered as part of an investment contract are subject to securities laws. And, more importantly, how these firms must comply with these laws. You are punishing digital asset firms for supposedly failing to comply with the law when they don’t know that it will apply to them. This is absurd. “

So Patrick McHenry reminded the SEC chairman of the importance of providing clear rules for the blockchain industry, otherwise it “drives innovation overseas and puts US competitiveness at risk. “

A evasive attitude to questions

Among the issues raised, Patrick McHenry recalls that in 2018, the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance believed that ETH was not a security, and last month, the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) considered the asset a commodity.

In contrast to these statements, the Chairman refers to the New York Attorney General, who recently referred to ETH as a security. Thus, Patrick McHenry states that an asset cannot be a security and a commodity at the same time and asks Gary Gensler what he thinks.

As we can see in this clip, he then dodges the question for 2 and a half minutes despite the chairman’s attempts to refocus the topic:

This lack of clarity was also pointed out in relation to previous Congressional investigations during the keynote speech:

“I’ll close with this: Chairman Gensler, your responses to congressional enquiries have been unacceptable. We have a constitutional obligation to monitor agencies under our jurisdiction and we will continue to do so aggressively. “

As regulatory uncertainty grows in the US in recent months, it will be interesting to watch the SEC’s next moves towards crypto-currencies, to judge whether it will change course.

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