SEC Chairman Asks For An Extra $72M To Strengthen Investor Protection In Crypto

Key Points:

• The SEC chairman has asked US lawmakers for an additional $72 million in funding to protect investors from the crypto market.
• This money is used to add dozens of full-time employees to its list.
• Gensler cited “the wild west of crypto markets” that were “rife with non-compliance”.

According to Coindesk, US SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has proposed $72 million in additional funding for the agency to protect investors from market participants’ disadvantage, including the cryptocurrency industry.

Speaking before Wednesday’s US Senate Appropriations Committee, Gensler cited the “wild west of the crypto market” as “fraught with non-compliance.” In this case, legislators and agencies must expand protections for investors.

“We’ve seen the Wild West of the crypto markets, rife with noncompliance, where investors have put hard-earned assets at risk in a highly speculative asset class,”

Gensler said in his prepared remarks.

In his opinion, he is seeking an additional $72 million to add dozens of full-time employees to his roster. The SEC chairman argued that a bipartisan bill approved last week to fund the SEC $2.364 billion for the fiscal year 2024 is just enough to “support currently authorized personnel levels “due to inflation”.

The SEC employed 4,685 people in 2023, with about half focused on enforcement and inspection tasks, according to data Gensler shared in his comments. The additional funding will help the agency add 170 positions to its teams, in addition to providing full-year financing of employees recruited by 2023, potentially bringing the total number of full-time employees. SEC time is equivalent to 5,139 employees.

Gensler revealed that the SEC’s enforcement division launched 750 enforcement actions in fiscal year 2022, resulting in $6.4 billion in fines and frustrations. Some enforcement actions have targeted crypto companies, making the SEC notorious for taking a “regulation by enforcement” approach.

The SEC chairman defended this approach, saying that the SEC has been talking to the market regularly through enforcement actions since the 1960s,
to answer a question from an audience member at the National Press Club earlier this week.

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