Gary Gensler, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, has said he wants to see regulation to protect consumers built into the operations of cryptocurrency exchanges.
- Speaking at a hearing of the House Financial Services and General Government subcommittee on Wednesday, Gensler said the crypto industry was home to an enormous number of coin projects, making it difficult for consumer protections to be put in place and leading to only 75 enforcement actions being taken by the commission.
- He said measures to protect users of crypto exchanges needed to be put in place at source, saying: “We could work with Congress to try to bring investor protection where these — sometimes commodities, sometimes securities — are trading on the platforms.” He added that he hoped to put in place protections similar to those governing activity on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq.
- Earlier this month, Gensler told the House Financial Services Committee that consumers had been left exposed to potential fraud and market manipulation involving cryptocurrencies due to the fact that no dedicated regulator had been set up to oversee the industry.