Gensler Urges Congress To Increase Funding For SEC To Investigate Cryptocurrency Issues

U.S. SEC Chair Gary Gensler described the crypto markets as the "Wild West" on Wednesday, and called for more employees to enforce the nascent industry, which he claims is rife with non-compliance.

Speaking at a hearing before the Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, Gensler noted the rapid growth and change in the markets, with more people than ever participating in trading and using tools and technologies that were previously unavailable.

He did warn that such growth and change also means more possibility for wrongdoing and the SEC needs to be adequately resourced to meet the match of bad actors.

Gensler said the Division of Enforcement and Examinations accounts for about half of the SEC’s staff, and that the Division received more than 35,000 separate tips, complaints, and referrals from whistleblowers and others in 2022.

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The Division brought more than 750 enforcement actions last year, resulting in orders for $6.4 billion in penalties and disgorgement.

The SEC chair said that rapid technological innovation has led to misconduct in the crypto space and that addressing this requires new tools, expertise and resources.

Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) asked Gensler whether the SEC currently has adequate resources to investigate emerging cryptocurrencies issues, to which Gensler responded, "We’re stretched thin, sir. This is a field that has significant amount of non-compliance in it. We’ve increased our resources there, but we could always use more."

With this in mind, Gensler called for increased funding for the SEC in the 2024 budget request, which would support an additional 170 positions and full-year funding for those staff hired in 2023.

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