Congressman Tom Emmer "More Concerned Now" That SEC's Crypto Strategy Isn't Working

US Congressman Tom Emmer has faulted the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for failing to prevent the FTX collapse despite outwardly promoting tough crypto-focused rules.

In a thread of tweets today, the newly appointed Republican majority whip argued that the agency was to blame for the collapse of several crypto firms for employing harmful and impractical tactics in dealing with crypto-related issues.

“We were concerned in March that GaryGensler was taking an indiscriminate and inconsistent approach to oversight of the crypto community,” tweeted Emmer. “We are even more concerned now as we’ve seen his strategy miss Celsius, Voyager, Terra/Luna– and now FTX.”

Emmer was referring to March 16 letter that he and seven other congressmen wrote to SEC chair Gary Gensler enquiring about the agency’s crypto information-seeking process. At the time, the lawmakers expressed concerns that the SEC was misusing its authority by selectively obtaining information from market participants for rulemaking purposes, thereby stifling innovation.

In a Tuesday night interview with Fox Business, the lawmaker raised concerns over a closed meeting between Fried and Top FTX executives with the SEC on March 23, after which the US trading arm of FTX forged a partnership with the regulator.

“We’ve got major questions. Gary Gensler and the SEC had meetings last March with Sam Bankman Fried and executives from FTX and they were working apparently with Sam Bank Man-Fried and others to give them special treatment from the SEC that others aren’t getting,” Emmer charged. 

“Sam Bankman Fried was pushing special treatment legislation through congress, and when it was finally revealed what it was, the industry started raising red flags—that’s when this thing came apart, and it’s really a failure,” he went on.

Emmer who reserved much of his ire for Gensler, further noted that the regulator had failed in investigative mandate asking where he was before Voyager and Celsius, Terra Luna, and more recently, the FTX collapse. According to him, it appeared as if Gensler was in bed with bad guys at the expense of good actors.

“What is the regulator responsible for this doing going after good actors in the community and working backroom deals-it appears-with people who are doing nefarious things?” he asked. 

That said, Emmer however, noted that the FTX collapse was not a crypto failure but a failure of Centralized Finance (CeFi) Sam Bankman-fried and government oversight as well as regulatory procedures.

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