US Senator Elizabeth Warren praises SEC Chair Gary Gensler for pushing the crypto genie back in the bottle

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) praised the financial regulator, Securities and Exchange Commission for taking charge of regulating cryptocurrencies. Warren believes that the crypto ecosystem needs to comply with regulations. 

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Senator Elizabeth Warren praises SEC Chair Gensler for crypto regulation

US financial regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission has policed the crypto industry and regulated through enforcement since Gary Gensler took over as chair. Senator Elizabeth Warren has urged lawmakers to give the SEC necessary resources and powers to keep regulating crypto.

Gensler took charge of the SEC in 2021 and Warren believes the SEC Chair has “put the genie back in the bottle and brought the crypto ecosystem into regulatory compliance.” Warren believes that under President Donald Trump regulators allowed crypto to explode and Gensler is working to protect investors from crypto products. 

The SEC has prevented Bitcoin exchange traded funds from hitting the market and Gensler has emerged as the largest critic of the crypto industry. Warren believes a strong SEC scares offenders and alleged insider traders. 

Warren said in an interview on Wednesday that crypto firms are spending millions of dollars each year lobbying to escape SEC oversight. The collapse of prominent crypto exchange FTX in November 2022 sent ripples through the industry and doubled regulators' efforts to improve supervision. This marks the need for strong crypto regulation and enforcement, according to the US Senator. 

Warren argues that,

The SEC should double down and use its tools to enforce the rules and where the SEC needs more cops on the beat, then Congress needs to step up with the resources and the new authorities that are needed to make sure the SEC can do its work at full strength in every corner of the crypto market.

The SEC has made headlines for the lawsuit against payment giant Ripple that started in December 2020. The cross-border payment remittance firm is still awaiting a judgment in the SEC v. Ripple case, battling the regulator to prove that its asset XRP is not a security, therefore does not come under the jurisdiction of US securities law.