Speaking at a recent event in New York, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) enforcement chief Gurbir Grewal has denied claims that the agency increased crackdown on the crypto industry. Instead, the agency director said the scrutiny intensified in response to the industry's failure to comply with the securities laws. Grewal added that they had to change strategies since they could not see compliance in this space. - The SEC official also underlined that they worked thoughtfully and incrementally on the crypto market.
- Grewal's comments came nearly two weeks after the SEC filed two consecutive lawsuits against Binance, the largest crypto exchange by trading volume, and Coinbase, the largest U.S. crypto exchange, over alleged U.S. securities law violations.
- The move saw backlash from the crypto industry, and both exchanges denied allegations in the SEC's complaints, accusing the agency of failing to properly regulate the industry by setting new standards unique to the crypto market.
- Grewal stated that a brand-new rule set would not be functional if the entire industry is built around non-compliance.
Over the last several months, many other crypto exchanges, including Kraken, Gemini, and Bittrex, also came under increased scrutiny by the SEC. |
