The SEC Left Out Cryptocurrency Out Of Its Agenda: Report

The SEC left out cryptocurrencies out of its agenda but not as explicitly as expected so let’s read more in our latest cryptocurrency news today.

The SEC didn’t explicitly identify crypto as a target for the new regulation but there are a few opportunities for crypto regulation. SEX chair Gary Gensler said that the crypto regulation is here to protect investors. The Securities and Exchange Commission is not too preoccupied with crypto right now and the agency released a new agenda for the spring and summer and crypto is not on it despite the recent statements that consumers will benefit from the regulation of exchanges and that the agency will be ready to enforce crypto cases.

#SEC issues new advisory to funds trading in #Bitcoin futures pic.twitter.com/jiZCSiTXSh

— Drew Hinkes (@propelforward) June 10, 2021

The agency is crafting the new rules for special purpose acquisition companies or SPACs and now the SEC’s agenda is broken into three stages: Prerule, proposed rule, and final rule. If we dig a little deeper, you could see areas for the SEC to discuss more crypto. Lawyer Gabriel Shapiro said in a reference to proposed rulemaking for trading platforms:

“I could imagine the gamification thing touching on digital assets (Robinhood effect).”

What’s more to it, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce proposed a safer harbor for all crypto projects that could appear a pre-rule process on exempt offerings because under the proposal, projects with tokens that could be considered securities and tradeable investment contracts will be given a time-limited exemption from filing with the agency.

During the appearance before the House Financial Services Committee, Gensler commented on crypto regulation and how to protect the investors. He also suggested that it will need to be headed up by Congress as crypto is not fowl. The SEC left out cryptocurrency from its agenda and it doesn’t consider BTC and other cryptocurrencies to be securities:

“Right now, there’s not a market regulator around these crypto exchanges and thus there’s really no protection around fraud or manipulation.”

This doesn’t suggest that the SEC is not monitoring the sector as it warned that BTC futures are a highly speculative investment and levied over $1.7 billion in penalties against crypto companies. Most of the crypto-related allegations by the SEC were related to fraud and over two-thirds dealt with unregistered securities offerings like the Telegram TON token.