SEC Chair Gary Gensler throws down the gauntlet
The cryptocurrency battle lines have been drawn.
On August 3, 2021, at the Aspen Security Forum SEC Chairman Gary Gensler in a gloved fist threw down the gauntlet against cryptocurrency only barely sparing Bitcoin.
Prior to launching into what amounted to a veiled threat against cryptocurrency he stated, “As is customary, I’d like to note that my views are my own, and I’m not speaking on behalf of the Commission or the SEC staff”.
He made it very clear, using the phrase “make no mistake” 3 times, that the SEC and the powers would be going after tokens, stable coins, trading platforms, and lending platforms (no matter what country they were in) to bring them all to heal and to register and comply with the SEC and other authorities.
Gensler is the face of what will soon be an all-out attack against cryptocurrency to bring the industry under the control and on behalf of the banking and financial systems that crypto is trying to liberate the world from.
After sharing a warm feeling towards crypto and that it “has been and could continue to be a catalyst for change in the fields of finance and money” he took the gloves off.
Hiding behind the “need to protect investors” he laid out his case that not only was almost everything in cryptocurrency going to be regulated but even offshore platforms were not beyond his reach.
In some areas, he is right for example that an ICO is an investment document and needs to have investor protections but then he went for the throat.
Bringing the Calvary
He made it clear he was calling for reinforcements “We need additional Congressional authorities to prevent transactions, products, and platforms from falling between regulatory cracks. We also need more resources to protect investors in this growing and volatile sector” he said. But he didn’t stop there “I’d like to note we have taken and will continue to take our authorities as far as they go”.
Then the threat “For those who want to encourage innovations in crypto, I’d like to note that financial innovations throughout history don’t long thrive outside of our public policy frameworks”.
And finally the heart of the matter which cryptocurrency is all about.
“At the heart of finance is trust. And at the heart of trust in markets is investor protection. If this field is going to continue or reach any of its potential to be a catalyst for change, we better bring it into public policy frameworks” he said.
This is the heart of the matter, Gary, we do not trust the system you are part of.