SEC Chair Gensler Seeks Additional $2.4B In Funding To “Crack Down” On Crypto

The SEC has been focused on pushing out a very aggressive agenda against crypto as the agency had done many enforcement actions against the industry in the past few months.

As a result of all that activity, it looks like the agency is now seeking additional funding in order to keep up with its actions.

In order to get that, Gensler is supporting President Biden’s request or provide a record $2.4 billion in funding for the SEC.

The reason for this proposal is that the agency needs more funding in order to effectively combat the “misconduct” that is happening within crypto.

However, many within the crypto community just sees this as an excuse for the SEC to acquire more funding so that it can continue to “pick and choose” winners as the past has shown that the SEC has continually failed to protect investors.

NEWS: Gensler says funding will help protect American families by addressing risks in the crypto marketshttps://t.co/lgNH9XNfgC

— SwissTrading (@swisstradingnet) March 31, 2023

Cointelegraph reports:

In prepared testimony for the March 29 budget hearing with the House Appropriations Committee, Gensler said the additional funding was needed to keep up the pace of innovation, adding:

“Rapid technological innovation in the financial markets has led to misconduct in emerging and new areas, not least in the crypto space. Addressing this requires new tools, expertise, and resources.”

The additional funding would allow the SEC to hire 170 additional staff, most of whom would work within its enforcement and examination divisions, said Gensler.

Gensler again described crypto as the wild west, suggesting the nascent industry is “rife with noncompliance,” and that crypto investors were putting their “hard-earned assets at risk in a highly speculative asset class.”

The increase in funding will likely not make a difference though due to the fact that there is still a major need for regulatory reform.

Right now, guidelines and classifications for what is considered a security is still unclear which makes the regulations open to interpretation by the SEC.

This problem will need to be solved before any new funding is provided to the SEC as it would not be effective until then.

Of course, this will likely not happen as there is a very aggressive anti-crypto stance that is taking place right now, but it is also unknown if the SEC will actually get the funding it is requesting.

Biden’s request will still need approval by many government authorities, but the crypto markets will continue to grow no matter what happens in the US.

SEC’s Gary Gensler seeks $2.44 billion funding to combat crypto misconduct https://t.co/BoKv3KEueZ

— Lily Suarez (@notaflowerlily) March 31, 2023

CryptoPotato reports:

The SEC has repeatedly been accused of extra-judicial enforcement and acting beyond its jurisdiction. After all, Congress has yet to roll out legislation covering crypto, and digital assets have yet to be legally classified as securities in the United States.

Crypto markets have shrugged off the repeated threats and action from Uncle Sam with a 2.4% gain on the day. This has wiped out all losses from the CFTC Binance lawsuit earlier this week.

As a result, total market capitalization had reached $1.22 trillion at the time of writing.

Bitcoin briefly topped $29,000 during the Thursday morning Asian trading session but had fallen back to $28,558 at the time of writing. Meanwhile, Ethereum was trading just below $1,800, according to CoinGecko.

SEC Chair Gary Gensler demands $2.9b funding for crypto crackdown

— whalechart (@WhaleChart) March 30, 2023

Join the conversation!

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.