The U.S. administration’s (SEC)) move to bring crypto into the regulatory framework has gained momentum since the collapse of Luna and Terra USD (UST).
According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the 18th, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler told reporters after attending the House Appropriations Committee, “I think more cryptocurrencies will go bankrupt.”
The SEC Chairman reiterated that crypto exchanges should be registered with the authorities as official exchanges and regulated.
“We can discuss with exchanges how to register exchanges and make crypto follow that path,” Gensler said. “We have to go in the direction of exchanges registering, otherwise the SEC will act as a watchdog and impose sanctions.”
Major cryptocurrency exchanges, including Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, are currently refusing to register with the SEC.
Chairman Gensler said that asset managers registered with the SEC do not have much exposure to cryptocurrency, but private equity funds and family offices are not identified one after another.
He told Congress on the same day that he wanted to expand additional staff for cryptocurrency organizations.
Earlier this month, the SEC nearly doubled the number of departments dedicated to fraud and other illegal activities in the cryptocurrency market.
CoinDesk, a cryptocurrency media outlet, reported, citing informed sources that the Joe Biden administration is pushing to separate the assets of the cryptocurrency exchange from customer assets.
This was triggered by Coinbase’s recent announcement that customer assets under trust could also be subject to bankruptcy proceedings.
According to this, customer assets entrusted to trade cryptocurrency sales in Coinbase can be liquidated, and customers can be treated as ordinary unsecured creditors.
In other words, if Coinbase goes bankrupt, customers can only take the remaining money after a “debt party.”
