Congressman Emmer: Gary Gensler is an incompetent “cop on the beat” | Invezz

Tom Emmer, the US House Majority Whip and Congressman for Minnesota, says SEC Chair Gary Gensler has accomplished nothing of note towards crypto regulation and that he is an “incompetent cop on the beat.”

In comments posted on Twitter following Gensler’s appearance at the US House Committee on Financial Services hearing on Tuesday, where among other things the SEC chair failed to provide a direct answer to whether Ethereum was a security or not.

In one such scathing criticism of Gensler and which relates to the turmoil that hit the crypto sector in 2022, the lawmaker tweeted:

“He was the “cop on the beat” when the biggest crypto frauds collapsed, doing nothing to stop these criminals before they defrauded Americans.”

Gensler has finalized “zero rules for crypto”

Gensler, a former Goldman Sachs investment banker, became SEC Chair following his nomination by President Joseph Biden on February 3, 2021. He has been at the agency’s helm for slightly over two years now.

Yet, according to Emmer, the SEC boss has “finalized ZERO rules for crypto companies to comply with”. Despite that, he has continued to abuse the SEC’s enforcement powers, targeting crypto companies and projects.

Emmer also slammed the SEC Chair for his inappropriate regulation “through public statements”, which have often been contradictory and only helps fuel further regulatory chaos for the crypto industry. As for what this is doing to the crypto space in the US, the Congressman says Gensler is only succeeding in pushing American companies offshore and into the hands of China.

“He’s actively putting everyday Americans in harm’s way and pushing American firms into the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.”

On Tuesday, Republicans on the Financial Services Committee, led by GOP committee chair Patrick McHenry, wrote a letter to Gensler criticizing his approach to crypto regulation. The lawmakers have taken issue with the SEC Chair’s aggressive pursuit of crypto trading platforms, in the guise that they must register yet there is no clear regulatory path for that process.

Indeed, the SEC’s latest action against digital asset platforms is the charges against Bittrex. Previously, the SEC has sued or reached settlements with Coinbase, Kraken and Paxos among other crypto exchanges and firms.

In the Bittrex complaint, the SEC listed Algorand as one of the securities illegally offered to customers. And crypto twitter has wasted no time in reminding Gensler of his previous comments about the ALGO network.