Mark Uyeda, a Commissioner with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has openly criticized the SEC’s regulation of cryptocurrencies, calling it a “disaster” that hasn’t given the business the clarity it needs. Uyeda voiced his worries about the SEC’s actions under Chair Gary Gensler on a recent Fox Business panel. He said that the lack of clear rules has slowed the growth of the crypto market.
In his comment, Uyeda said that the SEC has mostly depended on enforcement steps instead of making broad rules. “Our approach over the past few years has been bad for the whole industry,” he said, pointing out the confusion that has led to different court decisions with different views on crypto regulations.
His words came soon after Crypto.com sued the SEC, saying that the agency went beyond its power when it labeled most cryptocurrencies as securities. The exchange said that the SEC should have set clear legal limits instead of leaving companies guessing about how to follow the rules.
A lot of people in the coin industry are also angry, saying that Gensler’s strict stance makes it hard for new ideas to come up. Gensler insisted that crypto firms follow current securities laws, but many firms find that these rules are too strict for how they do business.
“We need to be clear about what securities laws cover and what they don’t cover,” Uyeda said, emphasizing how important it was to get clear answers right away. He didn’t say anything exactly about Gensler’s reasons, but he did say that the Chair’s view has a big impact on the SEC’s direction.
Uyeda and her co-commissioner Hester Peirce often push for rules that are more open to new ideas. He was worried that the SEC’s current approach to digital assets wouldn’t work in the long term and called for a review to make the bitcoin business safer.
There are still problems within the SEC, which shows a bigger problem with finding a balance between law and new ideas in the crypto world, which is changing very quickly. Uyeda came to the conclusion that fixing the problems with digital assets will stay very hard without a clear framework.
