Gary Gensler Likely To Be Questioned In Congress Hearing Over Crypto Crackdown

Crypto news today: In the wake of heavy criticism against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) crackdown on crypto companies, a body of lawmakers are reportedly challenging people like Gary Gensler. The crypto community opposed the recent enforcement actions by the SEC as well as the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYFDS). The enforcement actions included restrictions on Kraken’s crypto staking program and Paxos’ issuance of Binance USD (BUSD) stablecoin.

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SEC To Be Questioned Over Crypto Crackdown?

According to latest reports, a new “Digital Assets Subcommittee” within the House Financial Services Committee is set to hold a hearing soon. Reports said the hearing, the first ever around crypto market, will likely be held on March 9, 2023. The subcommittee hearing is titled as “Coincidence or Coordinated? The Administration’s Attack on the Digital Asset Ecosystem.” Although the subcommittee is yet to reveal whom to question in the hearing, Gary Gensler is most likely to be among the witnesses considering the dominance of the SEC in recent enforcement actions.

Most recently, Gensler made news by indicating that all crypto tokens except Bitcoin are securities. By this logic, he intends to have the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have supervising authority on Bitcoin while the SEC oversees all the other coins.

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Although the subcommittee is voicing out its support for the crypto ecosystem, many lawmakers as well as regulators have long argued against the volatile nature of Bitcoin price. This stems out of fear of risking investor assets in the instance of high risk environment like the crypto crash witnessed few times over the last 12 months. However, crypto industry insiders argue that the big price swings are only happening due to the lack of stability in the nascent industry.