Outgoing Securities and Exchange Commission Chief Gary Gensler doubled down on his anti-crypto stance stating that the crypto industry is rife with bad actors and runs mostly on sentiments.
Gensler made these remarks in an interview with Bloomberg where he was quizzed on his time at the SEC with his tenure coming to an end on January 20.
When asked about what he thinks of the crypto industry in the last days of his tenure compared to when he took he job. Gensler stated that the industry is rife with bad actors and runs mostly on sentiments and not fundamentals.
I think we have done some good things, Look I came in and met my predecessor Jay Clayton who has also tried to address this new emerging part of finance.
It is less than 1% of the overall financial markets yet Jay brought in 80 enforcement actions in this area. We have brought about 100 in our 4 years here. This field is rife with bad actors” Gensler stated
Gensler went further to speak on his general outlook on the crypto industry from his many years in finance. He stated that the crypto industry runs mostly on sentiments and very little on fundamentals.
“I’ve been around finance for over four decades, and everything in the markets trades on a mixture of fundamentals and sentiment at any given time,” Gensler said. “But I’ve never seen a field that’s so much wrapped up in sentiment and not so much about fundamentals,” Gensler added.
High Profile Crypto cases by the SEC under Gary Gensler
Under Chair Gary Gensler, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has initiated several significant enforcement actions against major cryptocurrency platforms.
In June 2023, The SEC filed 13 charges against Binance entities and its founder, Changpeng Zhao, alleging mishandling of customer funds and operating without proper registration.
In the same month, The SEC charged Coinbase for operating as an unregistered securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency, further intensifying scrutiny of major players in the cryptocurrency industry.
In December 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against Ripple Labs, alleging that the company and its executives had raised over $1.3 billion through an unregistered securities offering by selling XRP tokens.
Ripple contested the SEC’s claims, asserting that XRP should be classified as a digital currency rather than a security.
Despite the Anti-Crypto Stance, Gary Gensler’s SEC would be remembered for the approval of the Bitcoin and Ethereum Exchange Traded Funds launched in January and July 2023.
Gensler is expected to step down on January 20 with Paul Atkins a Donald Trump Nominee replacing him at the SEC.
