Gensler Makes Final Pitch on SEC Crypto Rules
Gary Gensler is making a final pitch for how the SEC should be allowed to regulate cryptocurrency markets ahead of the incoming Trump administration and its enthusiasm for digital assets. In remarks prepared for a Thursday legal conference in New York, the Securities and Exchange Commission chair repeated that the agency should be focused on “rules of the road” that apply to crypto sales and intermediaries, such as brokers and exchanges, to promote proper disclosure. The experience of the Great Depression, where so many investors were wiped out and the economy went into a tailspin, taught policymakers about the importance of “provisions about disclosure because information about securities creates a public good,” Gensler said at the Practicing Law Institute’s annual securities regulation conference. Gensler reaffirmed that Bitcoin itself isn’t a security, a position taken by his predecessor during the first Trump administration, Jay Clayton. “Our focus, rather, has been on some of the 10,000 or so other digital assets,” that total up to about $600 billion, less than 20% of the crypto market when Bitcoin, Ether and stablecoins are carved out, he said. Waning Days Gensler commented as the clock begins to run out on the current administration, and perhaps...
