Tag: SEC Chairman

Bitnomial Suit Highlights Crypto Turf War Between SEC, CFTC

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By. Professor Tonya Evans. 10/31/24. Law360

Bitnomial Exchange LLC’s lawsuit[1] against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, filed on Oct. 10 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, signals a major shift as digital asset exchanges push back against regulatory overreach. Bitnomial is seeking a declaratory judgment to challenge the SEC’s expansive jurisdiction over digital assets, fighting for clear and legally sound rules that foster innovation rather than stifle it.

The commission’s enforcement strategy under SEC Chair Gary Gensler has created regulatory uncertainty. Gensler’s “regulation by enforcement” approach diverges from established securities law and risks weakening U.S. leadership in financial technology.

By filing suit, Bitnomial aims to expose the pitfalls in the SEC’s regulatory tactics, joining other exchanges in a broader legal effort to reshape the rules governing digital assets.

Read the full article here: https://www.law360.com/articles/2254265

SEC’s Chairman Gensler Faces Congressional Grilling Over Crypto Oversight

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Nina Bambysheva. (Forbes). September 24, 2024.

In a highly anticipated Congressional hearing today, U.S. Securities and Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler and his fellow commissioners faced intense scrutiny over the agency’s handling of digital asset regulation.

For the first time since 2019, all five commissioners including Caroline Crenshaw, Hester Peirce, Jaime Lizárraga, and Mark Uyeda testified together before the House Financial Services Committee. The hearing laid bare the growing tension surrounding the SEC’s oversight of cryptocurrencies, which critics argue has become overreaching and legally ambiguous.

Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry, a Republican from North Carolina, wasted no time in setting the tone, calling out Gensler for what he sees as regulatory overreach. “Chair Gensler’s legacy will be defined by turning the once proud institution of the SEC into a rogue agency,” McHenry said, accusing the SEC of enforcing regulations “often without adequate justification, economic analysis, or public engagement.” The SEC’s heavy-handed approach has targeted a broad range of U.S. crypto companies—from exchanges like Coinbase to decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms like Uniswap and NFT marketplaces such as OpenSea.

Read the full piece here: Forbes.

Gary Gensler Under Fire for Alleged Political Favoritism in SEC Appointments

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By Vismaya V. (DeCrypt). September 12, 2024.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Gary Gensler has come under fire for allegedly hiring civil servants based on political affiliations—a violation of federal law.

The allegations come from a joint letter sent by the House Judiciary, Financial Services, and Oversight Committees. While the allegations don’t appear to overlap with crypto enforcement actions from the regulator, they do arrive at a time when firing Gensler has become one of Republican nominee Donald Trump’s campaign promises as he runs for re-election.

The letter, signed by Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry (R-NC), and Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY), calls into question the appointment of Dr. Haoxiang Zhu as SEC Director of Trading and Markets.

Read more here: DeCrypt.

Ripple Gets OK To Pause SEC Penalty As It Mulls Appeal

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By Aislinn Keely. (Law360). September 4, 2024.

Law360 (September 4, 2024, 9:34 PM EDT) — A New York federal judge on Wednesday signed off on Ripple Labs’ request to hold off on paying the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission the $125 million penalty it owes to allow time for either side to appeal the landmark ruling in the agency’s registration case.

The blockchain firm asked U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres earlier Wednesday to delay the monetary portion of her Aug. 7 judgment, which directed Ripple to pay the penalty for failing to register institutional sales of its XRP token. Though Ripple was due to pay up on Friday, Judge Torres allowed a stay until either 30 days after the time to appeal expires, or the resolution of any appeal. 

Read more at: Law360

Court Brings Gavel Down on SEC’s War on Crypto

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By Roslyn Layton. (DC Journal). August 20, 2024.

On August 8, Judge Analisa Torres of the U.S. Southern District of New York issued her judgment on the case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission against the blockchain payments company Ripple. 

In her 16-page order, Torres brought the District Court’s gavel down on the SEC’s spectacular failure to expand the administrative state beyond what the law allows. The SEC should read the room and move on.

From the moment the SEC filed its case against Ripple in December 2020, the breadth and audacity of its legal assault on the company and its two senior executives rightly dubbed it the cryptocurrency trial of the century. The SEC argued that the XRP token, a digital commodity by any definition, was a security and that all XRP sales between any two parties are investment contracts with Ripple in perpetuity.

Read the full piece here: DC Journal.

Crypto Coins of Appreciation and Traffic Management Await

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By Daniel Conway. (Real Clear Markets). August 8, 2024.


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Crypto Coins of Appreciation and Traffic Management Await

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By Daniel Conway

August 08, 2024Crypto Coins of Appreciation and Traffic Management Await

AP

In 2011, engineers at John Deere were putting bitcoin wallets on tractors and implements (seeders and fertilizers), and every spin of the axel created a message on the controller area network (CAN bus), after which a small amount of bitcoin transferred to the implement’s wallet. The process of creating what was effectively a new payment system horrified the company’s internal accountants, but the fact that bitcoin had no apparent monetary value at the time somewhat assuaged their worries.

By 2016, the automotive standards group SAE (The Society of Automotive Engineers) began standards conversations regarding blockchain, and today most new automobiles have blockchains built in. This created a whole new range of possibilities: Today, a driver coming up behind a car wanting to make a pass can signal his intention by using a turn signal, honking, or getting aggressively close to the car. With blockchain, the cars can automatically execute a smart contract so that the faster vehicle can pay cryptocurrency to the slower vehicle to move aside, creating a cryptocurrency mechanism for virtual fast lanes. Ford holds this patent, incidentally. 

Read full article here: Real Clear Markets.

Crypto industry super PAC is 33-2 in primaries, with $100 million for House, Senate races

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By Emily Wilkins. (CNBC). June 26, 2024.

KEY POINTS

  • A super PAC bankrolled by a small group of crypto companies has backed the winning candidate in 33 of the 35 House and Senate primary races it entered.
  • Fairshake PAC kicks off the general election season with a strong track record and at least $100 million to spend on crypto-friendly members of Congress.
  • The PAC has spent tens of millions already on ads that rarely mention crypto. Instead, the messages they deliver about “fairness” and “integrity.”

WASHINGTON — A super PAC bankrolled by top crypto companies notched several wins Tuesday night in congressional primaries, the latest in a series of victories by the newest big player in American election financing.

Fairshake PAC, which supports candidates across the political spectrum whose positions align with the crypto industry’s, will enter the general election campaign season with more than $100 million that it plans to spend to elect pro-crypto lawmakers to the House and Senate.

Read more here: CNBC.

It’s time to end the SEC’s war on crypto

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By Anthony Scaramucci. (Blockworks). June 6, 2024.

The American government is badly damaged — we need public servants who care more about right or wrong, especially when it comes to the crypto industry.

I’m not denying that there are reasonable questions about how crypto firms should be regulated. Many policy questions still require legislation to resolve. But, our current system is broken.

The Securities and Exchange Commission traditionally does not expose itself and its credibility to an appellate beatdown. But this SEC is different. This SEC and Chair Gary Gensler have an extra-regulatory anti-crypto agenda. And they are using their power to obstruct and delay the industry — imposing their own preferences where they can. 

Gensler may not like bitcoin. But whether you decide to invest in bitcoin is up to you, not the SEC. 

Read the full article here: Blockworks

Why The Securities And Exchange Commission Lost Its War On Crypto

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By Dan Ikenson. (Forbes). May 28, 2024

From banning “non-compete” clauses to re-requiring “net-neutrality” to hyperinflating the costs of taxpayer-funded infrastructure with extravagant union giveaways, the Biden administration has overseen a massive expansion of the regulatory state. But amid this regulatory incontinence, which sows uncertainty, suppresses innovation, and retards investment and growth, there are encouraging signs that Congress, the courts, and US entrepreneurs are fed up with rule by executive fiat.

Take, for example, the escapades of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Since assuming power, Biden’s approach to cryptocurrencies and related technologies has been to delegate and defer to an activist SEC and its crusading chairman, Gary Gensler. Chairman Gensler portrays the crypto industries as “rife with hucksters, fraudsters, [and] scam artists,” which, he seems to believe, excuses him from proposing and promulgating concrete rules, in compliance with statute, for the industry to follow. Instead, Gensler sees crypto companies as undeserving of such regulatory clarity, choosing to keep them off balance through a “regulation by enforcement” approach – aggressively suing crypto companies for non-compliance with securities laws without ever articulating what “compliance” requires.

In the absence of clear, legal pathways, companies in the digital asset space have taken their innovations and expertise to friendlier shores. Governments in places such as the United Kingdom, the European Union, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates have already established regulatory frameworks and their economies are certain to reap the benefits of the resulting financial and related technological innovations.

Read the full article here: Forbes

America Needs to Get Moving on Blockchain

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By Peter Roff. (Cagle Cartoons). May 24, 2024

From the sublime to the ridiculous, America invents. From the airplane to Jell-O, and in between, we somehow understand intuitively what people want and figure out how to get it to them. That’s put us in a position to lead the transformation of the marketplace many times, most recently by our rapid adoption of e-commerce.

It’s time we did it again by applying that same innovative spirit to blockchain. Instead, we’re hesitating. This may be out of fear of the unknown, but that’s easy to fix. Blockchain isn’t complicated and shouldn’t be scary. At its core, it is a peer-to-peer communication technology that could revolutionize global financial transactions, especially those crossing international borders.

The quicker we adopt it, the faster we get to a more streamlined and efficient future. That’s in everybody’s interest. The value of money continually fluctuates. Digital networks must operate quickly for estimates of value at the time of purchase to be accurately preserved. The faster they move, the more precise, secure, and transparent those valuations can be.

Read the full article here: Cagle Cartoon