Top US Regulator Gary Gensler Increases Pressure On Crypto Exchanges After Coinbase Spits Out, Saying They Must ‘Come In And Talk To Us’ | Currency News | Financial and business news

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Gary Gensler has been chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission since April.

Evan Vucci / Associated press

SEC boss Gary Gensler increased the pressure on crypto exchanges Tuesday, saying they should “come in and talk.” He said exchanges should register with the SEC if they offer securities, which many do, he said. Still, the debate over what constitutes security is a delicate issue and sparked a feud with Coinbase last week. See more stories on the Insider business page.

Securities and Exchange Commission boss Gary Gensler says crypto exchanges need to ‘come in and talk’ to the market regulator just days after a clash with the Coinbase trading platform over one of its products .

Gensler will appear before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday and used his prepared remarks to increase pressure on crypto exchanges, which he previously said he would like to regulate more tightly.

The SEC boss said the exchanges must register with the Commission because some of their tokens or products may be securities. It’s different from bitcoin, which regulators think of more as a commodity.

“I suggested that platforms and projects come and talk to us. Many platforms have dozens or hundreds of tokens,” Gensler said.

“Although the legal status of each token depends on its own facts and circumstances, the probability is quite low that with 50, 100 or 1000 tokens a given platform has no title.”

He added: “Make no mistake: as long as there are securities on these trading platforms, under our laws they must register with the Commission unless they are eligible for a listing. exemption.”

Read more: Crypto hedge fund manager breaks down his 3 trading strategies, including a liquid fund that has returned 1,240% since June 2019 – and shares the next alpha-generating trend on his radar

Gensler’s firm statement comes after the SEC cracked down on Coinbase, threatening to sue the $ 64 billion crypto exchange if it launched a digital asset lending product called Lend.

In response, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong accused the SEC of “really sketchy behavior” and said he didn’t see how the loan product was security.

The spat goes to the heart of a key issue facing the SEC, which is how to deal with crypto products that have only been developed in recent years.

Gensler has previously said that products that generate a specific interest rate could come under SEC scrutiny as securities. And he hinted that some stablecoins might fall into this category as well.

Still, some lawmakers and crypto industry figures would like to see more action from the SEC to clarify what it thinks it can and cannot regulate.

Armstrong said last week that Coinbase was “threatened with legal action before any advice was given to the industry.”

Gensler said in his prepared remarks that the SEC is working with the commodities regulator, Federal Reserve, Treasury and other agencies on a regulatory framework.

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