SEC’s Response To Letter From Congress Didn’t Answer Any Questions At All

May 11, 2022 4:14 pm Comments

Roughly two months ago, Congress had submitted a bi-partisan letter to the SEC and had asked within the letter to provide better insight on how what process does the SEC follow exactly when it comes to crypto regulation.

The letter was submitted as many were concerned about the SEC’s over-regulation of the industry which would stifle innovation.

Specifically, the letter mentioned that crypto startups should not have to be burdened with reporting requirements and jurisdictional actions that are unnecessary.

Well, it turns out that Gary Gensler finally responded to that letter after two months with a two-page letter.

And within that letter, none of the 13 questions that Congress had asked were actually answered to their disappointment.

CoinDesk reports:

The letter then asked a series of 13 detailed questions about document requests the SEC has made of cryptocurrency industry participants, the number of questions in them and how much time companies were given to respond to them.

They also asked what the expected compliance costs were to respond to these requests.

“Crypto startups must not be weighed down by extra-jurisdictional and burdensome reporting requirements. We will ensure our regulators do not kill American innovation and opportunities,” Emmer wrote in a tweet accompanying the letter.

The congress members called for their queries to be answered no later than April 29.

The letter’s other signees were Rep. Darren Soto (D-Fla.), Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio), Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.), Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), Rep. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) and Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.). Apart from Donalds, all are members of the Congressional Blockchain Caucus.

It was already expected that the SEC would not respond in a timely manner given the history of their responses and this response showed that they were around 11 days late.

Tom Emmer, one of the members of Congress that spearheaded the submission of this letter, commented on Twitter that they will continue attempting to get the answers from the SEC.

Emmer has posted the entire letter that the SEC had responded back with which indeed confirms that there has been no helpful information that has been included within the response.

Therefore, it looks like the crypto community will continue to have unclear regulations and guidelines which they are supposed to follow for the time being still.

Emmer.house.gov explains to intent of Congress’s letter:

Emmer said, “Crypto startups must not be weighed down by extra-jurisdictional and burdensome reporting requirements. The SEC must ensure that its information-seeking requests to private crypto and blockchain firms are not overburdensome, unnecessary, and do not stifle innovation.”

Specifically, the letter asks SEC Chair Gensler to provide details about the frequency and manner of its voluntary document requests to private, non-SEC regulated crypto and blockchain firms.

While the SEC has the authority to secure transparent information from market participants for rulemaking purposes, the SEC must ensure that these inquiries do not infringe on the standards established in the Paperwork Reduction Act, which limits the burden the federal government imposes on private businesses and citizens.

For an organization that has publicly stated that it values transparency, the actions so far seem to be quite a different story.

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