SEC Chair Gensler calls on Congress to rein in crypto
Brian Cheung joins Myles Udland and Brian Sozzi to discuss SEC Chairman Gary Gensler’s comments on cryptocurrency and how he wants Congress to regulate crypto to protect investors from a catastrophe.
Video transcript
MYLES UDLAND: All right, let's turn from the world of cars to the world of cryptocurrency. SEC commissioner Gary Gensler yesterday spoke to members of Congress and called on them to rein in the wild west of the cryptocurrency world. Yahoo Finance's Brian Cheung joins us now to discuss the very calm and unloaded conversation, Brian, around cryptocurrency regulation, which Gensler certainly stepped into yesterday.
BRIAN CHEUNG: Well, I mean, it was a big deal. It was the SEC chairman's most comprehensive remarks since he's really taken office on the crypto space. And honestly, it was kind of a nothing-burger at the end. Because for as long as the speech was-- he was speaking to the Aspen Security Summit-- they really just kind of called on Congress to say, hey, maybe draw out the stakes for where regulatory agencies need to be in terms of saying this is what you should be regulating, in terms of these are securities, these are not securities, these are exchanges that you should be regulating, these are places that you shouldn't be regulating. And take a listen to what the chairman of the SEC said broadly speaking, though, about how he's approaching the cryptocurrency regulation space.
GARY GENSLER: That's where I am about Bitcoin and the crypto space. If somebody wants to invest, as they have in gold or silver, that's a-- that might be a speculative play but to a layer over that investor protection. And I think that enhances economic activity but also protects investors. We wouldn't have the use of automobiles today if we didn't have some basic bargain if we had no traffic lights, no stop signs.
BRIAN CHEUNG: Kind of a perfect segue that you had over there from cars to crypto because he was comparing the cryptocurrency space--
MYLES UDLAND: Thank you, Gary.
BRIAN CHEUNG: --to saying, hey, it's very much like the creation of automobiles in the 1930s, that you just didn't have this technology coming out of nowhere, that it was kind of a government partnership and them setting up the infrastructure to have traffic lights, to have stop signs. Now, of course, what does that mean or translate to in the cryptocurrency regulatory space? No one really knows, which I think is a big reason why-- even though he's calling on Congress to say here's the legislation for what you should be regulating, it's going to take a long time for Congress to figure out what that looks like.
BRIAN SOZZI: Did Gary Gensler get room rated? I liked his room.
BRIAN CHEUNG: Yeah, it was a little bit too high. It's-- he's a short guy--
BRIAN SOZZI: Yeah.
BRIAN CHEUNG: So I guess maybe the camera wasn't set up right. But--
BRIAN SOZZI: Yeah.
