Shark Tank star Mark Cuban commented on the SEC’s recent lawsuits against cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase and Binance. According to the billionaire, the agency prefers to sue rather than regulate. So he urged the SEC to recognize the fact that cryptocurrencies are just another technology that will only succeed or fail depending on their merits.<br
“The SEC has chosen the wrong way to regulate the industry. The regulator tends to make mistakes, too, and in this case it chose the wrong course,” Cuban said.
While many cryptocurrency industry participants are demanding that the SEC provide clear rules that industry companies must follow, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has repeatedly said that existing laws are sufficient to regulate cryptocurrencies. You just have to go to the agency and register, Gensler said.. Cuban found his statement arrogant, doubting that the current regulatory framework could cover the entire cryptocurrency industry.
The billionaire added that if the SEC had taken the approach used in Japan, U.S. investors would not have lost money, referring to the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX. By establishing clear rules on the separation of customer and exchange funds, as well as wallet requirements, such losses would not have occurred.
“Japan has made it clear that FTX is not a cryptocurrency problem, but a fraud problem.. The best way to prevent cryptocurrency fraud is to develop investor protection rules and introduce mandatory registration. Any unregistered company is in de facto violation of the rules, so it should be shut down,” the billionaire reasoned.
Cuban said earlier that the FTX fiasco resembled the collapse of a conventional bank because it involved a violation of standard financial rules applicable to the banking business.