US Democrat Senator Criticizes Gary Gensler’s Approach To Crypto

In a letter to Chair Gensler, Hickenlooper said that the existing absence of an unified regulatory framework results in “uneven enforcement.”

U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper (D-Colorado) is one of the first Democratic senators to openly criticise U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission head Gary Gensler’s cautious attitude to cryptocurrencies (SEC).

In a letter to Chair Gensler originally reported by Punchbowl News, Hickenlooper said that the present absence of a cohesive regulatory framework leads to “uneven enforcement” and prevents a clear understanding of investor protection.

“At the same time, as you have repeatedly noted, existing securities regulation does not cleanly apply,” he said. “Applying the old rules to the new market could inadvertently cause financial services to be more expensive, less accessible, and the SEC’s disclosure regime to be less useful to the American people.”

Hickenlooper urged the SEC to explain whether digital assets are securities, how they should be created and listed as such, decide what investor disclosures are required, develop a registration framework for trading platforms, and establish standards for trading and custody.

Previously, Chair Gensler and the SEC’s attitude to crypto has been criticised by political elites, mostly on the other side of the aisle. Senator Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), for example, blasted the regulator for failing to take regulatory action that may have averted the worst repercussions of the failure of many crypto firms, including Celsius Network.