“‘He was out bashing Kim Kardashian, because she’s promoted crypto on some Super Bowl ad or something, when he should have been overseeing FTX, the biggest fraud and the biggest malfeasance in American financial history. And he’s opened up this year, in 2023, with all these enforcement actions, I think it looks like CYA to me.’”
That line above came Wednesday from Republican Rep. French Hill of Arkansas, as he blasted Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler for how his agency has handled cryptocurrency exchange FTX — and argued that a recent crypto
BTCUSD,
crackdown is a “cover your ass” move, meaning a bureaucratic effort to head off criticism.
Read more: Opposition to Gensler’s crypto crackdown grows after Coinbase lawsuit
An SEC spokesperson said the agency declined to comment on Hill’s remarks.
Hill, who was speaking in Washington, D.C., at an event hosted by law and lobbying firm BakerHostetler, is among the House Republicans who rolled out a new bill last week that aims to provide a framework for crypto regulation. In a CNBC interview earlier Wednesday, the congressman linked the measure to the SEC’s actions.
“Both the action on Coinbase
COIN,
on Binance, and of course the infamous collapse of FTX last year, speak to me that we need this clear, concise, statutory, framework. That’s why we’ve introduced this bill,” said Hill, who chairs the House Financial Services Committee’s subpanel on digital assets. “If we had this bill in place, then the SEC wouldn’t have to take the actions that they’ve taken.”
From MarketWatch’s archives (October 2022): Kim Kardashian fined by SEC for touting crypto without disclosing payment
Also read (November 2022): FTX’s fall: ‘This is the worst’ moment for crypto
