By Roslyn Layton. December 5, 2021. (Forbes).
Last Wednesday, the current and previous chairmen of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) shared what was billed as a “fireside chat” to open the Digital Asset Compliance & Marketing Summit. Gary Gensler and Jay Clayton spoke, took no questions, and agreed that the multi-trillion dollar crypto innovation space is a dark, menacing threat that legitimate crypto entrepreneurs must follow opaque rules or face crippling SEC lawsuits. Gensler made it clear that there is no difference between “fraudsters” and “good-faith actors” in crypto – both are lawbreakers endangering the public.
Many in the audience of crypto industry leaders, just maligned as crooks, were stunned. Gensler repeatedly said that “platforms need to come in and get registered,” as if everyone knew what he was talking about. Perianne Boring, the head of the Digital Chamber of Commerce tweeted, “People in the room are looking around and asking, “register as what?””
It’s a fair question given that the exchange Coinbase – the only crypto company to have gone public on the stock market – tried “going in”. Upon sharing to share its lending platform information, the SEC slapped Coinbase with a subpoena and the threat of what Gensler affectionately calls “the enforcement tool.”