The existing laws are sufficient, and the agency is already doing what it considers necessary, according to chair Gensler.
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has denied a Coinbase petition for a rulemaking on transactions with cryptocurrencies that are securities. Coinbase filed the petition in July 2022 and pushed steadily for a response.
SEC chair Gary Gensler announced the commission’s decision in a Dec. 15 statement. He gave three reasons for denying Coinbase’s petition, which requested “rules to govern the regulation of securities that are offered and traded via digitally native methods, including potential rules to identify which digital assets are securities.”
Gensler first argued that existing laws and regulations already apply to crypto. His phrasing was nuanced:
