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Edited by Samiksha at 26-12-2023 01:07 PM
Gary Gensler, the chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, will face the Senate Banking Committee tomorrow, reiterating his strong belief that many cryptocurrencies fall under the agency's jurisdiction.
Gensler is scheduled to attend the hearing on Tuesday morning, and he seems to be steadfast in his view that cryptocurrencies must adhere to the same laws as other securities like stocks, despite the setbacks the agency has faced in the courts in recent weeks.
"Given that the industry broadly isn't following our securities laws, it's not surprising that we see a lot of problems in these markets. We've seen this movie before," he said in prepared testimony released on Monday. "It harkens back to the 1920s when, before the securities laws were put in place."
"So, we're taking a series of enforcement actions—some settlements, some litigations—to hold wrongdoers accountable and to promote investor protection," Gensler added.
Navigating the Courts
As Congress formally returns to Washington after its summer recess, Gensler may face questions about recent court rulings.
At the end of August, Gensler scored a win when a federal judge in the District of Columbia ruled that the SEC had to reexamine an asset management firm's bid for a physically settled bitcoin ETF.
A month prior, Ripple Labs had a partial win when Judge Analisa Torres ruled that some of Ripple's XRP sales (called programmatic sales) didn't violate securities laws because they used a blind-bidding process. She also ruled that other tokens sold directly to institutional investors were securities, giving the SEC a partial victory.
The hearing comes several months after the SEC sued Coinbase and Binance for allegedly operating unregistered exchanges.
Gensler stated in his prepared testimony that he wouldn't discuss ongoing litigation. |
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