US SEC Chairman Says Only Congress Could Ban Crypto

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman, Gary Gensler, said that the SEC does not have the authority or intention to ban cryptocurrency.

The head of SEC statement came on October 5 during a House Committee on Financial Services hearing. Gensler reiterated that only Congress could ban crypto as it doesn’t fall within the SEC’s mandate.

Gensler said,

It’s a matter of how we get this field within the investor consumer protection that we have and also working with bank regulators and others — how do we ensure that the Treasury department has it within anti-money laundering, tax compliance.

In addition, he states that many of these tokens meet the test of being securities. More so, he emphasizes the need to bring crypto within the investor protection remit of the SEC.

During the hearing, Gensler also talked about the financial stability issues that stablecoins could raise as a priority for the agency.

Note that the hearing came on the day that Patrick McHenry introduced the ‘Clarity for Digital Tokens Act’ of 2021, which weighed on the proposal that the pro-crypto SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce put forward in February 2020.

For instance, McHenry accused the SEC head of failing to act under the agency’s “long-held practice of noticing comment on rulemaking and procedures.”

In response to this accusation, Gensler said that the SEC follows the administrative procedures’ act.