Gary Gensler, the Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, commented to Senator Elizabeth Warren asking for help to clamp down on cryptocurrency exchanges.

Gensler’s statement came in response to a letter that was sent by Senator Warren on July 7th, a letter that answers on crypto regulation. Warren expected a response from Gary no later than July 28.

Gensler said in response “Right now, I believe investors using these platforms are not adequately protected.” he explains that the cryptocurrency market consists of centralized and decentralized platforms where people trade or lend tokens.

Gary explains to the Massachusetts Democrat on August 11, 2020, Thursday,  that his agency needs to tighten regulations on crypto exchanges for which they would be requiring resources. "I believe we need additional authorities to prevent transactions, products, and platforms from falling between regulatory cracks," he exclaims.

With this move, Gensler aims to protect American retail investors. He also requested to give more authority to watchdogs to write and implement rules by saying "We also need more resources to protect investors in this growing and volatile sector. It doesn't matter whether it's a stock token, a stable value token backed by securities, or any other virtual product that provides synthetic exposure to underlying securities. These products are subject to the securities laws and must work within our securities regime."

Gary also talks about the alleged common practice carried out by some platforms that refrain the US investors from trading like Virtual private networks (VPN). VPN plays a huge role in giving internet users anonymity by creating a private network from the public one.

Gensler used to teach digital assets at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has been adamant about his thought that cryptocurrencies need to be regulated due to their volatile nature. In a speech that he had delivered in August before the Aspen Security Forum, he had addressed the crypto  market as a "Wild West."

Elizabeth Ann Warren, an American politician and former law professor, is the senior United States senator from Massachusetts who has been serving since 2013.

Rushali Das

CBW - External Analyst

INDIA