With just days left until his exit from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Chair Gary Gensler once again took aim at the cryptocurrency industry, arguing that it is "rife" with bad actors.
Gensler pointed to the fact that the public knows a lot about Bitcoin, which accounts for 80% of the market value.
However, there are also thousands of projects that lack fundamentals, according to the SEC boss.
"And then there's everything else…These 10,000 or 15,000 projects… I've never seen a field that's so much wrapped up in sentiment and not so much about fundamentals," he said.
Gensler has predicted that many of them will not survive, comparing them to venture capital investments. He also added that there is a fair amount of "pump-and-dump schemes."
Defending the crypto crackdown
Speaking of his upcoming departure, Genser said that it was "a great privilege" to serve as the head of the SEC.
"What's remarkable about this role is it oversees the $120 trillion capital market, which touches everything in our economy," he said.
Alex DovbnyaEven though Gensler's legal fights with the cryptocurrency have attracted most of the headlines, he stressed that it was an insignificant part of the SEC's activities.
"It's maybe about 5% of what we do in our law enforcement," he stressed.
Gensler stressed that Jay Clayton, his predecessor, also brought 80 cryptocurrency-related enforcement actions in this area. Hence, according to the current SEC boss, their approach to dealing with the crypto industry was in line with the previous administration.
Alex Dovbnya
Godfrey Benjamin
Dan Burgin
Vladislav Sopov