U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler testifies before a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee oversight hearing on the SEC on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., September 14, 2021.
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler testifies before a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee oversight hearing on the SEC on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., September 14, 2021. Reuters / EVELYN HOCKSTEIN

KEY POINTS

  • Gensler did not agree with the idea that a court decision would change his perspective on the crypto industry
  • SEC chair said he hoped for a court decision that could "help bring the compliance soon"
  • The video gained a variety of reactions, with some criticizing the SEC chair and others making fun of him

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler is easily one of the most hated personalities within the crypto community. His recent statement expressing his reluctance to let the courts influence his view about crypto has not helped improve that opinion.

A new video showing what seemed like an ambush interview of Gensler, was shared by lawyer Jeremy Hogan on Thursday, amassing nearly half a million views on the social media platform X.

The brief clip recorded the SEC chairman saying the crypto industry was rife with non-compliance, a statement that seemed to have become his mantra over these past weeks.

When he was asked whether any court decisions could change his perspective on crypto, Gensler said he would remain unswayed and did not agree with the idea that a court decision would change his perspective.

Instead, the SEC chair said he hoped for a court decision that could "help bring the compliance soon."

The video gained a variety of reactions, with some criticizing the SEC chair and others making fun of him.

"Gary Gensler is a smart man. See his MIT lectures if you don't believe me. He has found himself in an impossible position, forced repeatedly to deny facts that are public knowledge. His political masters are humiliating him. At this point we should cut him some slack," an X user who uses the handle @MecLego said.

"He needs to be fired. This is not ok," X user @@CryptoWendyO commented.

"He is not even an attorney, pretty arrogant but maybe an attorney would never say such a thing," said X user @@jmmpayne.

"The crypto space is full of fraud b/ the @SECGov has decided to ONLY focus on legitimate companies in this space," X user @@Crypt0Fiend21 chimed in.

Earlier this month, the SEC chairman reiterated his stance toward the crypto industry when he testified before Capitol Hill.

He said at the time "the vast majority of crypto tokens likely meet the investment contract test" and justified the commission had launched a series of regulatory enforcement due to the non-compliance.

"Given this industry's wide-ranging non-compliance with the securities laws, it's not surprising that we've seen many problems," the SEC chair said, adding, "It's reminiscent of what we had in the 1920s before the federal securities laws were put in place."

"Thus, we have brought a number of enforcement actions -- some settled, and some in litigation -- to hold wrongdoers accountable and promote investor protection," he said.

In July, Gensler said the same about crypto in one of his interviews, and criticized the nascent industry for lack of adherence to securities law.

"As I said this is a field that there's a lot of non-compliance in this field and that the platforms themselves where trading is occurring in various crypto tokens," the SEC chairman said. "Though some of it comes under the Securities laws, currently they're not necessarily compliant with those time-tested protections against fraud and manipulation."

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