He said that the regulator has only grown 3% larger in terms of staff count in the last seven years.
Gary Gensler appearance before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs has seen the chief regulator double down on his views on crypto following a pre-hearing statement released yesterday.
Gary Gensler says crypto misconduct is daunting
During the hearing, Gary Gensler was asked if he thought the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had enough staff for the enforcement of regulation on the crypto ecosystem. Gensler responded that the agency was far from overstaffed.
He said that the regulator has only grown 3% larger in terms of staff count in the last seven years. Whereas, crypto has grown 50-60% within the same timeframe.
“I have been around finance 44 years now and I have never seen a field that’s rife with more misconduct. It’s daunting,” Gensler said.
Read more: Grayscale CEO says after court win: “We have to be a little bit patient.”
Remarks shows he’s doubling down
Gary Gensler has maintained that the crypto sector is filled with tokens that fall under the purview of the US Securities laws. He says the tokens fulfill the Howey test, a legal standard that determines whether an asset or transaction qualifies as an “investment contract” subject to the securities laws.
“As I’ve previously said, without prejudging any one token, the vast majority of crypto tokens likely meet the investment contract test,” he said in his remarks, released on Monday evening US time. “Given that most crypto tokens are subject to the securities laws, it follows that most crypto intermediaries have to comply with securities laws as well.”
Though Gensler said that he was speaking for himself and not the agency or its staff in his initial remarks.
In July, Democrat Congressman Ritchie Torres had compared the agency to an “overzealous traffic cop” bent on ticketing drivers for speeding without ever telling them what the speed limit is at any point.
Torres questioned Gensler over his intentions to “come to terms with the folly of the Commission’s crusade,” citing a limited legal victory Ripple Labs achieved against the regulator in July as justification to “reassess its reckless regulatory assault.”
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