Gary Gensler

less dedicated lawyers and investigators and economists in an agency like ours means less protection for the public.

I think it is. And I think, to the chair's question, it is about capital formation and investors because investor protection means more people are confident in a market.

I was not supportive of that legislative initiative back in 2018.

I thought at the time that there was a risk of correlation.

At its core, when Congress set up the SEC, it was about protecting the investing public and thus the capital formation on the other side with this disclosure.

If this committee were to see fit, and want us to have more resources, we could use them.

I have disclosed here; I think Senator Van Hollen still might call me on my cell phone. I have known him for 23 years.

Retail investors have greater access to markets than at any time in the past.

And so when a celebrity or influence is touting it, it`s important that the public understands that relationship.

Congress painted with a broad brush to protect the public against scammers and fraud and so forth.

I would dare say often the public is not protected.

I actually think there's very clear rules. If you're--if you're raising money from the public and the public's betting on that, you've got to disclose certain things.

I wish we had more to be able to dedicate to this.

I think our job at the SEC is to be that cop on the beat to look out for investors, and to ensure that the markets are free of fraud and manipulation.

So the SEC helps protect the public, when you, the public invest in companies to make sure that you get full and fair disclosure, and that the public is not lied to fraud, right?

many crypto asset tokens may be unregistered securities, without required disclosures

rife with fraud, scams, and abuse.

In my view, the legislative priority should be center of crypto trading, lending, and DeFi platforms.

I think that as we get closer to October 18th, we need to understand that markets can get pretty--they can do things that we don't expect.

I think that is what we are trying to do is to ensure that the public is not defrauded and what stands behind those claims.

What I have said publicly, and I mean this, is come in and work with us.

[u]ltimately, every pension fund investing in these private funds would benefit if there were greater transparency and competition in this space.

I've suggested that platforms and projects come in and talk to us. . . . I believe that the SEC, working with the CFTC and others, can stand up more robust oversight and investor protection around the field of crypto finance.

It doesn't matter whether it's a stock token, a stable value token backed by securities, or any other virtual product that provides synthetic exposure to underlying securities. These products are subject to the securities laws and must…

I think that it is important that investors actually have brokers take their best interests to heart, and that is what we are going to do through examination and enforcement guidance, ensure that that rule is fully complied with as written.