‘I feel very good about what we’ve done’ #CriptoNews

Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler is not backing down from his views about the cryptocurrency industry as he prepares to walk out the door.

“Many in the crypto field are not complying with our time-tested laws,” he told Yahoo Finance in an interview Tuesday, calling many digital assets “highly speculative.”

Of some assets, he said, “You have to question what is their true use case; what is their value proposition?”

Gensler spent much of his tenure clashing with the biggest players in the cryptocurrency world as the SEC filed lawsuits against major digital asset companies, including US cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase (COIN).

Coinbase has not been shy about hitting back. Its chief legal officer Paul Grewal hinted at the feud on X last November after the SEC boss announced his plans to depart on Jan. 20.

“My mom always told me if I didn’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all,” Grewal said in his post. “So I’m just gonna sit this one out.”

President-elect Donald Trump pledged to fire Gensler as one of many promises to the crypto industry. After Gensler gave his resignation notice, the incoming administration said he would be replaced by well-known crypto lawyer Paul Atkins if confirmed.

For years, Atkins has made it clear he favors clearer regulations of cryptocurrencies that don’t stifle innovation or impose unnecessary oversight.

Gensler on Tuesday refuted the notion that SEC’s approach to regulating crypto played a role in Democrats losing the 2024 presidential election, pointing to other issues like inflation and the economy at large as determining factors.

Despite his concerns about cryptocurrencies, Gensler allowed BlackRock and 10 other money managers to launch spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds, allowing everyday investors to get exposure to the world’s largest cryptocurrency without having to own it.

It was a move that he has said was influenced by a court ruling against the SEC, one of several court decisions that didn’t go his way.

Just this week a federal appeals court ruled the SEC needs to better explain why it turned down a request from Coinbase to develop regulations to cover the crypto world. The industry wanted a new set of rules governing what assets were overseen by which agency.

Gensler didn’t back down on that front, saying Tuesday that “not liking the law, not liking the rules doesn’t mean there aren’t laws and rules.”

The SEC issued some new actions this week, including a combined $45 million in civil penalties to settle a series of regulatory violations by Robinhood Securities LLC and Robinhood Financial LLC.

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