Tom Emmer Calls SEC Chair Gray Gensler ‘Bad Faith Regulator’
The crypto-friendly congressman questioned Gary Gensler’s supposed “open door policy,” saying that he might have an open door, but it’s an enter-at-your-own-risk door.
Crypto-friendly Congressman Tom Emmer called SEC chair Gary Gensler a “bad faith regulator” for his bitcoin regulation.
Great interview by @laurashin with @GOPMajorityWhip! Congress is working in their districts this week and next, but expect a VERY busy last 2 weeks of April for crypto policy as legislation and oversight of the regulators ramps up. Stay tuned https://t.co/ZSsTFJ9pt7
Emmer slammed Gensler’s crypto supervision on Laura Shin’s Unchained podcast on April 7:
“This guy in my mind, is a bad-faith regulator. He’s been blindly spraying the crypto community with enforcement actions while completely missing the truly bad actors.”
Emmer used Coinbase as an example. Before the SEC gave Coinbase a Wells Notice in March, the company was trying to work with the agency by, among other things, getting feedback on how well its products met compliance rules.
“Gary Gensler might have an open door, but it is an enter-at-your-own-risk door, because what he does is, despite several meetings over several months, Gary Gensler’s SEC refused to provide feedback,” he said, adding that:
“And instead, after all these meetings and nothing happening, the SEC slapped Coinbase with a Wells Notice regarding the very issues on which Coinbase was asking for their feedback.”
Since taking over the SEC in April 2021, Gensler has repeatedly said the agency has a “open door policy” and urged crypto businesses to register with the SEC to comply with securities law.
This is mostly because he thinks that almost all crypto assets other than Bitcoin (BTC) are securities, so the SEC should be in charge of regulating the sector.
Even so, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has talked more than once about how hard it is to deal with the SEC. Other people, like Kraken CEO Jesse Powell, have said similar things.
Many people in the crypto community are worried about the SEC and the rest of the U.S. government’s “regulation by enforcement” approach, which seems to be biased against crypto.
Emmer finally had this to say about it:
“This is clearly not the way the government should be serving Americans, and that it sends a clear message, I believe, to the broader crypto community, and that directly is ‘Gary Gensler is not regulating in good faith’.”
And if not, why is our government controlling one of the few private sector 24/7 money rails that supported the digital economy?
