Security Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler continues to maintain his anti-crypto stance. In an interview with Bloomberg, he called the industry “full of bad actors” and “built around non-compliance,” showing the same tough stance as ever.
Gensler said his career as a financial regulator had actually hardened his previously ambiguous stance, but he had not softened it since being impeached.
Gensler after the SEC
Many descriptions could apply to Gary Gensler, the outgoing chairman of the SEC, but no one can accuse him of changing his beliefs easily. Since Trump won the recent presidential election, Gensler announced that he would resign on Inauguration Day.
His “farewell speech” resolutely defended his staunch anti-crypto stances, and he’s doubling down on that two months later.
“This space is full of bad actors. The public knows a lot about Bitcoin, which is [the majority] of the market cap, and then there’s the rest. Those 10 or 15 thousand projects… many of them won’t survive,” Gensler said.
Gensler began the interview by discussing his positive experiences at the SEC and his willingness to stand firm under public criticism. From there, the conversation naturally moved to one of his biggest critics: the U.S. crypto industry.
The SEC chairman said he has made progress in increasing compliance, but described it as a particularly daunting task.
“Everything in the markets trades on a mix of fundamentals and sentiment. I’ve never seen a field so wrapped up in sentiment and so little fundamentals! It’s a field built around nonconformity,” he added.
Gensler talks about taking down “crypto criminals” citing SBF, CZ and Do KWon
In a particularly surprising note, Gensler paid particular attention to the SEC’s efforts to take down high-profile crypto criminals.
He referred to Sam Bankman-Fried, Do Kwon and Changpeng “CZ” Zhao as criminals on the same level, despite the extreme variation in their acts. CZ, for example, was sentenced to just four months, while SBF received 25 years.
Gensler also stated that his tenure at the SEC actually hardened his anti-crypto attitudes. His work prior to this appointment was in academia, and he stated that he continually tried to entertain pro-crypto arguments in a learning environment.
After becoming a federal regulator, however, Gensler found himself with a responsibility to crack down on violators.
Gensler, a declared enemy of the crypto industry
Ultimately, any vision Gensler had for the SEC as a crypto regulator is over. Trump will replace him with an industry ally early in his term, and the CFTC chairman will resign simultaneously.
Yet there’s still something admirable about Gensler’s outlook. He has consistently remained a dedicated crypto enemy, and failure hasn’t softened that view.
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