US watchdog head seeks more power from Congress to regulate cryptos

ANKARA

The head of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday asked Congress for more power to regulate fast-growing cryptocurrencies and their market.

"Certain rules related to crypto assets are well-settled ... we have taken and will continue to take our authorities as far as they go," Gary Gensler said in a speech at the Aspen Security Forum, an annual three-day foreign policy conference in Colorado.

"There are some gaps in this space, though: We need additional Congressional authorities to prevent transactions, products, and platforms from falling between regulatory cracks. We also need more resources to protect investors in this growing and volatile sector," he added.

Noting that crypto assets revolve around speculative investment, Gensler said they have not been used much as a unit of account and that no single crypto asset fulfills all the functions of money.

Gensler, who taught classes in digital currencies, blockchain and financial technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) before leading the SEC, said the watchdog does not have enough investor protection in the crypto market, calling it "like the Wild West."

"This asset class is rife with fraud, scams, and abuse in certain applications,” he explained.

“There’s a great deal of hype and spin about how crypto assets work. In many cases, investors aren’t able to get rigorous, balanced, and complete information. If we don’t address these issues, I worry a lot of people will be hurt.”

The SEC head also noted that there are 77 digital tokens worth at least $1 billion each, as of Monday, and 1,600 with at least a $1 million market capitalization.

Since hitting an all-time high of $64,374 in mid-April, the world's largest cryptocurrency Bitcoin has since lost around half of its value and was trading near $38,000 on Wednesday. During that time, the total market size of the crypto market fell to $1.47 trillion from almost $2.5 trillion.