SEC Boss Gary Gensler Sheds Light on Crypto Regulation Plans by His Agency in 2022

US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler made some utterances about cryptocurrency regulation and revealed his agency’s plans for 2022 at an interview with CNBC Monday.

The number one SEC man explained that: “If you are raising money from the public, and the public is in anticipation of profit based upon that promoter, sponsor, that group’s efforts — that’s within the securities laws, and it’s within the securities laws because Congress painted with a broad brush.” Gensler added that:

“They want to protect you — the investing public — so that you have proper information, or what’s called full and fair information, and protect you against fraud and scammers and the like.

The SEC chair argued that investments that classify themselves as tokens “are still probably, possibly a security.”

While the SEC boss acknowledged that the financial space continues to record new avenues to invest money, including crypto tokens and Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs), describing them as “exciting,” he emphasized that:

“Our role at the SEC is to ensure that the public still gets basic protection.”

The chairman further elaborated: “What is kind of old and really important is this basic idea that if you raise money from the public and the public is thinking about a profit, you have got to give them basic disclosures and everything.”

Meanwhile, when asked to talk about the growing use of cryptocurrency in crowdfunding programs, Gensler detailed that: “Crypto tokens, I will call them, are raising money from the public, and are they sharing with the public the same set of disclosures that helps the public decide and are they complying with our Truth in Advertising? Call it the Securities Act’s anti-fraud provisions.” He added that:

“Unfortunately, way too many of these are trying to say: ‘Well, we are not a security. We are just something else.’”

SEC Chair Gensler Refuses to Comment on Ethereum’s Status

That said, the host quizzed Gensler on whether his agency sees Ethereum as a security, pointing out that the Commission considers XRP a security-based in the ongoing lawsuit with Ripple Labs and its executives.

However, Gensler refrained from providing any clarification on the matter. The SEC boss noted: “I’m the chair of a five-member Commission that’s also a civil law enforcement agency. So, we don’t get involved in these types of public forums, talking about any one project, one possible circumstance, and give legal advice over the airwaves that way.”