Gensler: disclosures not enough to protect crypto exchanges

[TomPluz]

Taken from this crypto news site.

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler said Wednesday that federal securities agents may continue bringing enforcement actions against crypto exchanges, even if the platforms disclose their products’ risks to retail investors.

In a CNBC interview, Gensler said crypto exchanges with disclosures aren’t immune to being sued by regulators if they are “manipulating the market.” The companies are also not protected from lawsuits if they publicize “misleading” information that leads traders to pour money into products they otherwise wouldn’t invest in, he said.

The SEC has cracked down on the digital assets industry in recent years, particularly since the collapse of crypto exchange FTX. The agency has sued Kraken and Binance and is still pursuing a civil case against the U.S.'s largest crypto exchange by daily trading volumes, Coinbase.

Of course, disclosures should never be enough to protect crypto exchanges from possible liabilities most especially with the lawfare and sometimes overreach undertaken by SEC under the leadership of Gary Gensler. Looking at the things he said above, what is clear is that up to now the SEC has not issued a guideline which the industry can follow to the spirit and letter...or better yet it should be asking Congress to come up with an acceptable regulatory framework where all players have to diligently follow and from where all violators will be charged and fined accordingly. 

[Zed0X]

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Looking at the things he said above, what is clear is that up to now the SEC has not issued a guideline which the industry can follow to the spirit and letter...or better yet it should be asking Congress to come up with an acceptable regulatory framework where all players have to diligently follow and from where all violators will be charged and fined accordingly.

When it comes to fighting market manipulation, I don't think there is a need for a new framework to cover crypto exchanges. There are laws created, prior to the emergence of crypto, against fraudulent business practices that could be applied to CEX too. Just because the product (and tech) is different, it doesn't mean there's a need for a new law.

[hugeblack]

I think they are trying to push more people to use ETF and all the centralized alternatives but many will end up stopping trading and buying Bitcoin from DEXs so soon they will change their policy towards focusing their efforts on decentralized platforms.

[yhiaali3]

Gary continues to try to present himself as the first master in control of the entire crypto industry. He does not stop throwing accusations and warnings here and there for and without reason.

If his goal was to protect investors, they would be very happy, but it seems as if he only wants to attack crypto companies all the time. There are enough laws to protect investors and companies, and Gary’s first task is to protect investors by monitoring companies’ compliance with regulatory regulations, and it is never his duty to attack companies without a reason.

We hope that the bill recently passed by the US Congress carries with it regulatory clarity and protects companies from Gary Gensler in the first place.

[Stompix]

There are enough laws to protect investors and companies, and Gary’s first task is to protect investors by monitoring companies’ compliance with regulatory regulations, and it is never his duty to attack companies without a reason.

There are? Like what laws?
Do you know what Kraken and Coinbase defense was when they sold all those tokens? It boiled down to we didn't force you to buy so if it went down and you lost money it's all your fault!

Look at the ton of shitcoins exchanges that are allowing users to buy, are advertising for them, and messaging millions of followers on the day of the listing, do you honestly think they do anything other than basic research, or did they care about it while allowing trading? How many coins have been delisted from exchanges because they were scams before the rug was pulled, before the police arrested the developers, or at any time that would have protected investors from losing money?

You don't have to agree with this guy on everything or to like him but he's right on this one, this part of crypto is like the Wild West, even gambling at a casino looks sometimes safer than this!

[Z-tight]

Centralized exchanges just want to make money and most of them are usually into one shady thing or the other. I don't like Gensler, neither do i like how the U.S government is 'attacking' the crypto industry, but i think it is important that they continue to look into how these exchanges operate and in the process try to protect customers funds.

However, people should learn from recent events and store their coins in their self custody if they don't wanna lose it in one exchange or the other.

[Captain Corporate]

Basically they are saying "if you promote crypto and how you could make money from crypto, and people invest into crypto via your exchange, and lose money, then they can sue you" which is something that needs some examples from other markets. If for example JP Morgan has an advertisement that says "buy apple stocks from us and be rich" and people do invest and they lose, if those people can sue JP Morgan for that ad, then I guess it makes sense that exchanges could too. But if other places could promote other markets then we have to say that its not going to be something to really care about on the long term at all.

[Kemarit]

I think they are trying to push more people to use ETF and all the centralized alternatives but many will end up stopping trading and buying Bitcoin from DEXs so soon they will change their policy towards focusing their efforts on decentralized platforms.

I'm not sure though that they are pushing to more investors to go to ETF, remember that they have been against it for many years until this 2024 wherein there  could be a lot of pressures from them, specially that big entities might have lobbied them to approved the ETF.

They just simply saying that CEX are more liable now more than ever. The only problem I see is that what if the CEX rug pull, how can SEC as a regulator goes after those individuals or will they go after them?

[LogitechMouse]

What happened to the most anti-crypto of all time. He changed his stance when it comes to crypto already.
Well, maybe the acceptance of ETF's has some effect on why they are saying this.

I don't know, but he has a point. After the FTX fiasco back in 2022, the SEC has been aggressively pursuing these popular CEX like Binance, Kraken, and Coinbase. Anyway, I agree that disclosures are never enough, but the question is, what do the CEX still needs to present in order for the SEC to say that "it's enough". Day-to-day trading transactions?

[ABCbits]

I'm not sure what is his goal by stating something obvious, especially when there are already laws about market manipulation and misleading investor. Although on other side, some exchange take risk by listing dubious or newly created coin/token. And i remember Coinbase used to auto-generate many webpage about how to buy token/coin, even for shady or unpopular ones which misused by some actor to promote certain token/coin.

[Stompix]

Basically they are saying "if you promote crypto and how you could make money from crypto, and people invest into crypto via your exchange, and lose money, then they can sue you" which is something that needs some examples from other markets. If for example JP Morgan has an advertisement that says "buy apple stocks from us and be rich" and people do invest and they lose, if those people can sue JP Morgan for that ad, then I guess it makes sense that exchanges could too.

The problem is exacerbated because there is no way Tim Cook could dump 50% of Apple's stocks in one go on the market, that Apple has assets, it files sec documents every quarter, and no way a fat finger mistake could render 25% of the entire products unusable as a wrong address could when it comes to coins. Plus, there is the thing about hacking, good luck hacking and stealing stocks...

I'm not sure what is his goal by stating something obvious, especially when there are already laws about market manipulation and misleading investor. Although on other side, some exchange take risk by listing dubious or newly created coin/token. And i remember Coinbase used to auto-generate many webpage about how to buy token/coin, even for shady or unpopular ones which misused by some actor to promote certain token/coin.

I just read in another topic there have been 19 000 meme coins generated in one week, this is something that has no precedent, we never had the opportunity to lose money that fast on so many things before. Looking back my previous statement about Wild West might not be enough to describe what's happening.

[yhiaali3]

There are? Like what laws?
Do you know what Kraken and Coinbase defense was when they sold all those tokens? It boiled down to we didn't force you to buy so if it went down and you lost money it's all your fault!

Look at the ton of shitcoins exchanges that are allowing users to buy, are advertising for them, and messaging millions of followers on the day of the listing, do you honestly think they do anything other than basic research, or did they care about it while allowing trading? How many coins have been delisted from exchanges because they were scams before the rug was pulled, before the police arrested the developers, or at any time that would have protected investors from losing money?

You don't have to agree with this guy on everything or to like him but he's right on this one, this part of crypto is like the Wild West, even gambling at a casino looks sometimes safer than this!

This is what I alluded to in my comment.

The job of Gary and governments in general should be to protect users first and foremost, they are enforcing KYC and money laundering and anti-terrorism regulations to censor and control users not protect them.

Why don't they turn to these fraudulent projects that you mentioned and force them to submit their papers to the SEC or another competent government body before they list their fraudulent coins on exchanges? They should make laws to impose strict standards on new projects and not allow any project to be listed on exchanges unless it meets these standards. And penalize exchanges that do not adhere to these standards.

This can provide a kind of protection for users from fraudulent projects and from greedy exchanges.

[Faisal2202]

I think it's a great thing as they are streamlining the adoption of crypto. If they will regulate crypto even if it's against the motive of people who love BTC, but still more regulations will bring more traditional people to adopt crypto. Overall I think about who would have made an excuse that they have given the disclaimer and Gensler has to make it public so from now on everyone can't use this excuse and they have to come up with something new.

Well, how is a disclaimer going to save them from legal investigation! His motives are clear as he is after every crypto exchange not following the rules. That's a good thing as in the long term more projects are going to be introduced into the market and if they will not be forced to follow the rules they will scam people and by time the scammers will increase in the world and they will loot a lot of money of innocent people and to save these people Gensler is doing great.