The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has stated that it should be the primary body in charge of overseeing cryptocurrencies. According to Gensler, he and his staff are working to safeguard investors by better regulating the hundreds of new digital assets and currencies and overseeing the more well-known bitcoin and ether markets.
For years, Wall Street’s top regulator has struggled with budget cuts, resulting in fewer attorneys, examiners, and economists at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to monitor and supervise the vast array of securities markets that fall under the agency’s purview. However, with the SEC now delving into a slew of new capital-markets concerns such as cryptocurrency, the agency’s top official is pleading with Congress for extra funding.
Lawmakers also grilled Gensler on the SEC’s continuing investigation into payment for order flow, a contentious technique used by online brokerages like Robinhood Markets to generate money.
Market makers, like Citadel Securities, execute the buy and sell orders that firms like Robinhood sell to them. Market makers benefit from the difference between the price at which they acquire shares on the open market and the price they sell them to Robinhood customers.
Gary Gensler On Crypto Regulation
This week, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler discussed cryptocurrency regulation in an interview with Bloomberg. According to a recent report, the SEC has pursued at least 97 enforcement proceedings against crypto firms and people so far. Gensler has also stated that cryptocurrency is one of the SEC’s top concerns.
“The regulations are quite clear as written down in the 1930s,” he asserted, adding that “we have the power to deal with these exchanges utilizing various authorities” to adjust some of the current standards for the crypto economy. He admitted that crypto platforms do not function similarly that regular exchanges do.