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Billionaire Mike Cuban blasted Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler after the agency extended its crackdown on the crypto sector again this week.
Crypto marketplace OpenSea said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday that the SEC issued a Wells notice against the company, one of the final steps the agency typically takes before it issues formal charges.
OpenSea is a platform that allows users to create, sell and buy non-fungible tokens, otherwise known as NFTs, which the SEC alleged are securities, according to OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer.
Responding to Finzer’s announcement, Cuban posted on X, “Gary gensler screws up again.”
A crypto advocate, Cuban has been outspoken about the SEC’s crackdown on the sector. In June, Cuban warned President Joe Biden—who was still running for reelection then—that he could lose to “crypto voters” if he did not listen to them and change the SEC registration process, which he called “a uniquely American Gary Gensler problem.”
Newsweek reached out to the SEC via email for comment.
Gensler, who was appointed to his position by Biden in 2021, has repeatedly stated that he believes much of the crypto industry, which he’s likened to the “Wild West,” belongs under SEC jurisdiction.
Brian Fluharty/Getty Images
On Wednesday, Finzer warned that the “sweeping move” from the SEC could “stifle innovation on an even broader scale.”
“This is a move into uncharted territory,” Finzer said, adding that as a result of NFTs being targeted, “Hundreds of thousands of online artists and creatives are at risk, and many do not have the resources to defend themselves.”
“We should not regulate digital art in the same way we regulate collateralized debt obligations,” Finzer said. “It would be a terrible outcome if creators stopped making digital art because of regulatory saber-rattling.”
In an email sent to Newsweek in June, Cuban said, “Gensler says there are set rules in place for everyone to follow. But if not one company with a token has been able to follow those rules and register, what does that tell you about his intent with the crypto industry?”
In a second post responding to the OpenSea news, Cuban wrote, “Also makes you wonder if @GaryGensler is secretly a @JohnEDeaton1 supporter. He is doing everything in his power to end @SenWarren career!”
Republican John Deaton is running to unseat Senator Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts this year. Warren is one of the Senate’s most vocal crypto opponents, while Deaton has become somewhat of a hero among the crypto company.
Deacon, a Detroit native, moved to Massachusetts in January and registered as a Republican to take on Warren. He rose to fame for battling the SEC in a landmark crypto case last year “to continue my life’s mission to shake things up for the people who need it most.”
It’s unlikely Deacon could defeat Warren in the deep-blue state, but he has received an influx of donations from crypto executives like Anthony Scaramucci, founder of investment firm Skybridge Capital, the Winklevoss twins, founders of the crypto exchange Gemini, and Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen, both executives at the crypto firm Ripple.