US Senator Calls on SEC’s Gensler to Answer for ‘Regulatory Failures’

Republican Senator Tom Emmer has long been a critic of Gary Gensler and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s approach to cryptocurrency regulation.

Minnesota Senator Tom Emmer has chastised US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler for his failed “crypto information-gathering operations,” and has demanded that Gensler testify before Congress to explain the consequences of his “regulatory failings.”

Emmer’s remarks came in a Dec. 10 tweet to his 67,500 Twitter followers, in which he mentioned a bipartisan Blockchain Caucus letter he co-authored to SEC Chairman Jay Clayton on March 16.

“We now know Gensler’s crypto information-gathering efforts were useless,” Emmer added, noting the Terra ecosystem’s collapse and the insolvent crypto platforms Celsius, Voyager, and FTX.

“[Gensler] must go before Congress and answer questions about the cost of his regulatory failings,” the Senator said.

According to Emmer, Gensler has not been before the House Committee on Financial Services since October 5, 2021, leaving crypto media to fill the hole for the SEC’s investigative failures.

The March Blockchain Caucus letter noted that the SEC’s attempts to get information from crypto businesses were “haphazard and unfocused,” rather than “targeted, purposeful, or clear.”

Emmer contended that Gensler’s answer, which arrived two months later, avoided many concerns about the SEC’s methodologies and processes for overseeing the digital asset business.

“Rather than that, Gensler chose to explain to Congress the functions of the SEC’s Enforcement and Examination Divisions,” Emmer wrote.

Emmer has previously criticized the banking watchdog’s cryptocurrency supervision tactics.

“Congress should not have to hear about the SEC’s oversight agenda via planted pieces in progressive magazines,” he said on November 26.

Emmer had tweeted a few days earlier, on Nov. 23, that Gary Gensler’s lack of leadership had contributed to FTX’s tragic collapse, which occurred in early November.

Much of Gensler and the SEC’s efforts in recent years have been focused on assessing whether cryptocurrencies meet the Howey test and hence are subject to US securities laws, most notably the current Ripple lawsuit with its XRP (XRP) coin.

Emmer has long advocated for cryptocurrencies as a financial asset, dating back to 2020, and believes that the US government should clear the way to avoid stifling innovation in the crypto business.