SEC chairman presents crypto enforcement cases to legal experts | Media Pyro

The Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States, Gary Gensler, called the major enforcement actions against crypto companies as part of the “extreme economy” of the securities law.

In comments written for the Annual Institute of the Practicing Law Institute on Securities Regulation on November 2, Gensler used examples of SEC enforcement to crypto lending firm BlockFi and a former Coinbase employee in justifying the agency’s actions on violations of US securities laws. Under Gensler, the SEC takes a “case-by-case” approach to enforcement actions regardless of the nature of banks, securities or funds.

“When BlockFi failed to register offers and sales of a cryptocurrency offering product, and made false and misleading statements about those securities, we will pay,” said Gensler. “When a former Coinbase executive and others were accused of colluding to sell crypto-assets, we will pay.”

According to the SEC chairman, the commission’s employees are “public servants” and “police officers on the beat” who “combine the passion of the people with extraordinary strength.” The SEC issued more than 700 enforcement actions against the firms as of Sept. 30, resulting in $4 billion in civil penalties out of $6.4 billion in judgments and orders.

“Fraud is fraud, regardless of the type of investors you defrauded or the type of funds used in the fraud.”

However, Gensler reiterated his “come and talk to us” statement about financial products firms, and offered the opportunity to “work with [the SEC’s] inspection and repair [their] do bad things.” The SEC chairman said that enforcement against crypto firms will remain on the commission’s part in 2023 in his budget proposal from May.

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Many in and outside of the crypto space have criticized the SEC for taking a “regulated by participation” approach in its cases against crypto firms – for example, labeling the nine indicators as a “crypto asset manager” in a July complaint against a former Coinbase product manager. .

The outcome of the 2022 midterm elections in the US — whether in a lame-duck session of Congress or beginning in January 2023 — could influence whether the bills that considering the efforts of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the SEC to investigate crypto.