Post-FTX, senators want Gensler to do more to police crypto industry
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S enators of both parties who oversee the Securities and Exchange Commission pressed SEC Chair Gary Gensler to crack down even harder on crypto companies.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the second-highest ranking Democrat in the Senate, used much of his question time with the regulator during Wednesday testimony to criticize the crypto industry and push Gensler to be more aggressive in policing it.
“They spent billions on sports arena or stadium naming rights deals to gain misguided credibility with everyday Americans and manipulate prices with phony tokens of no underlying value,” Durbin said, while also noting accusations levied at FTX, Binance, and others of failing to adequately protect or safeguard customer assets. “This is happening over and over again. This doesn’t sound like America.”
Durbin also flagged efforts by the industry to lobby Congress, saying he never asked for money from the industry but was surprised to see that his campaign received $20,000 from the sector. Failed crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried was one of the biggest political donors in the U.S. during the last two campaign cycles, primarily to Democrats, though he claimed in an interview that he also secretly gave millions to Republicans. Some of the charges brought by federal prosecutors against Bankman-Fried allege criminal campaign finance violations.
“I hadn’t asked for it and didn’t realize I’d received it,” the Illinois Democrat said. “But they are playing everywhere they can to buy influence in the process.”
Durbin then pressed the SEC chair about how to "protect American consumers from cryptocurrency in the future".
Though Gensler agreed that there was “a tremendous amount of bad actors in the field,” he defended the underlying technology while asking for more funding for his agency to police the industry.
The SEC chair criticized the combining of different market functions at trading platforms, reiterating a point he’s made before that “we would never allow the New York Stock Exchange to also trade against their customers.”
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