SEC Officials Reluctant to Accept Criticism After Crypto Industry Crackdown

Liputan6.com, Jakarta A US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) official on Friday, June 16, 2023 rejected criticism of their crackdown on cryptocurrencies and lambasted the sector for violating securities laws.

SEC enforcement director Gurbir Grewal said the regulator’s intense scrutiny of crypto companies came in response to the industry’s failure to comply with agency regulations.

The agency’s aggressive actions have sparked a wave of criticism from digital asset firms and advocates on Capitol Hill for what they describe as regulatory breaches. However, the commission ignored criticism from various parties.

“We have been working seriously and gradually in this space. Normally you would also see compliance but we didn’t see it in this space so we had to change strategy,” said Grewal, quoted from Yahoo Finance, Monday (19/6/2023).

The SEC began targeting some of the tokens that conducted the initial coin sale process as unregistered securities offerings, but increasingly, they have focused on crypto companies acting ostensibly as unregistered exchanges and broker-dealers.

Crypto industry players say existing US regulations are inadequate and require new regulations. On Friday, Grewal also questioned whether such new rules would work to reduce violations.

Last week, the SEC sued Binance and Coinbase, the world’s two largest crypto exchanges, for allegedly violating its rules. The SEC action is the latest in the crypto industry.

Binance and Coinbase have both denied the allegations and accused the SEC of walking away from the companies’ attempts to work together and reach a resolution. Coinbase says the agency hardened its stance and became less willing to work with crypto companies after the FTX collapse in late 2022.

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