#SEC Chair: Crypto Market Filled with Bad Actors#

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler recently said in an interview that the cryptocurrency space is rife with “bad actors” and is a “non-compliant” area where market sentiment has a far greater impact than fundamentals. He pointed out that while Bitcoin accounts for 60% to 80% of the cryptocurrency market value, the remaining 10,000 to 15,000 crypto projects also raise funds from the public, many of which ultimately fail, with a large number of pump-and-dump scams and other issues. Gensler believes that there are a lot of bad actors in the crypto market and that regulators need to step up their oversight of cryptocurrencies, especially targeting altcoins and intermediaries. He said that he has made some progress in the area of crypto regulation since taking office and has continued the work of his predecessor, Jay Clayton. Over the past four years, the SEC has launched about 100 enforcement actions against the cryptocurrency space, accounting for 5% of its enforcement work. Gensler will step down as SEC Chair on January 20, and his remarks suggest that the SEC will continue to increase its regulatory scrutiny of the crypto market in the future.