The SEC boss insists that the industry is 'rife' with bad actors during his last days at the agency. With just days left until his exit from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Chair Gary Gensler once again took aim at the cryptocurrency industry. Gensler pointed to the fact that the public knows a lot about Bitcoin, which accounts for 80% of the market value.
'And then there's everything else…These 10,000 or 15,000 projects… I've never seen a field that's so much wrapped up in sentiment and not so much about fundamentals,' he said. Gensler has predicted that many of them will not survive, comparing them to venture capital investments. He also added that there is a fair amount of 'pump-and-dump schemes.' Speaking of his upcoming departure, Gensler said that it was 'a great privilege' to serve as the head of the SEC. 'What's remarkable about this role is it oversees the $120 trillion capital market, which touches everything in our economy,' he said. Even though Gensler's legal fights with the cryptocurrency have attracted most of the headlines, he stressed that it was an insignificant part of the SEC's activities. Gensler stressed that Jay Clayton, his predecessor, also brought 80 cryptocurrency-related enforcement actions in this area