One of the leading journalists of the Forbes business magazine said that the increase in the number of cases settled by the US regulator in relation to crypto companies indicates the arbitrariness of the department.
Roslyn Layton called the tactics used by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to regulate cryptocurrencies manipulation and despotism. The journalist believes that the growing number of cases settled by the department with cryptocurrency companies indicates the absence of clear rules for oversight of the industry.
“About 90% of the cases brought by the SEC against issuers of digital assets are settled rather than ending in court. This high degree of enforcement means that SEC rules are unclear. They may not even exist,” Layton says.
The author of the material mentioned a recent speech by SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, in which he stated that he did not see strong differences between the capital markets and cryptocurrencies. Given the number of cases filed by the department against crypto companies, Layton called the SEC’s actions unreasonable. Since 2017, the SEC has initiated about 200 lawsuits against cryptocurrency companies. In 2020, the SEC reported that it had raised $1.26 billion since the beginning of the year for organizing illegal ICOs. According to Layton, the commission prefers not regulation by rules, but enforcement, sending claims against financial entities and imposing fines on them.
“The SEC is engaging hundreds of lawyers to prosecute companies for non-compliance with rules that still cannot be found on the commission’s website. Instead, the agency could set the task of developing clearer rules for the cryptocurrency industry. Industry members have been asking for this for years, but in vain. Gensler has been serving as chairman of the SEC for a year and a half. It’s time for some clarity. After all, it turns out that Ripple in 2013 should have declared XRP as a security, although the SEC itself did not even suspect this until it filed a lawsuit in 2020, ”Layton added.
Recently, former SEC Chairman Jay Clayton expressed concern that excessive regulation could ruin the cryptocurrency industry. Therefore, the former official believes, it is better for the government to study the latest technologies in more detail before imposing restrictions on them.
Source: Bits
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