Earlier today, Paul Atkins, the chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, resoundingly reaffirmed his support for the cryptocurrency industry.
“And today, ladies and gentlemen, we must admit that: crypto’s time has come,” Arkins told the audience of the inaugural OECD Roundtable on Global Financial Markets.
Atkins recalled that he was working near the Place de la Concorde in Paris in the 1980s, and, back then, he says that “he could hardly have imagined” speaking of new technologies that are now revolutionizing global finance.
To make this point, Atkins used the famous quote of French author and politician Victor Hugo about the idea whose time has come.
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In his keynote speech, Atkins spoke about the “Project Crypto” initiative, which was announced in July. He has stressed that the agency aims to modernize the securities laws and provide regulatory certainty.
Moving away from regulation by enforcement
Gary Gensler, the former chairman of the SEC, emerged as the armenemy of the cryptocurrency industry due to his aggressive “regulation by enforcement” approach.
Ankins has made it clear that the SEC is moving away from Gensler’s approach, accusing his predecessor of trying to “subvert” the cryptocurrency industry. He has stated that Gensler’s policies were both “injurious” and “ineffective,” accusing him of trying to subvert the crypto industry.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, a strong ally of the cryptocurrency industry, recently stated that Gensler will go down as “the worst SEC chair in history.”
