Billionaire and crypto advocate Mark Cuban criticized the chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for his crackdown on the sector, arguing that FTX and Three Arrows Capital (3AC) would still be in business if not for the US regulator been.
SEC chairman under fire for crypto crackdown
Mark Cuban recently participated in two podcasts on Thursday to discuss industry-related topics, including the U.S. election, cryptocurrency adoption and the SEC’s regulatory stance. The billionaire heavily criticized the US regulator and its chairman, Gary Gensler, for their ‘regulation through enforcement’ approach to the sector.
In an interview with Farokh Sarmad, Cuban repeated his long-standing dissatisfaction with the Commission, claiming that he is a ‘big fan of bright-line regulation’ rather than ‘litigation regulation’.
The crypto lawyer decried the SEC’s lack of transparency and argued that the Commission has tried to make the law based on the rulings of its lawsuits instead of setting clear rules from the start, which is a common practice been. criticism for the regulatory authority.
He revealed that he confronted Gensler in CNBC’s green room last week, laying out the reasons for his criticism. “I told him this: you’re ruining the whole thing, you’re pushing industries abroad (…) that’s just wrong because it starts with crypto but spreads to other applications,” he recalled.
Cuban, however, believes the SEC chairman “didn’t really get it.” The billionaire suggested that Gensler had “a bit of Elizabeth Warren in him,” explaining that the SEC chairman may be “trying to be a public servant who saves the world” with his attempt to crack down on the industry and its “bad actors.” to grab. ”
In the All-In podcast the entrepreneur continued to condemn the American regulator and claim that without Gensler, crypto companies such as FTX and 3AC would not have gone bankrupt. He argued that if the US regulator had taken the right approach, companies could have operated responsibly and protected investors:
What he should do is say, here are the Bright Line rules. If FTX wants to lend out all their Ethereum, you have to do what they did in Japan and have 95% collateral, and 95% of everything has to be stored in Cold Storage. If he had followed the same crypto rules as Japan, FTX would still be in business. Bankman-Fried may still be in jail, but FTX and 3AC are said to still be active.
Harris’ campaign ‘knows Gensler screwed up’
The billionaire shared details of his conversations with US Vice President Kamala Harris and her campaign. Cuban has done so publicly endorsed the Democratic candidate for the upcoming presidential elections in November.
In the interview with Farokh, he said that despite his bias, he believes that having Gensler as chairman of the SEC was a bad look for the Biden-Harris administration because it automatically “junks” all resolutions.
Cuban also claims that Harris and her campaign are aware, “they understand he messed up, that’s why you haven’t heard her say anything positive to support him.” He sees Gensler’s non-endorsement as a “big” and positive signal for its crypto stance, which has been heavily questioned.
Finally, he revealed that he was “trolling” when he offered to become the next chairman of the SEC under Harris’ administration. Instead, the billionaire wanted to open a conversation and send a message to Gensler: “that he’s doing it all wrong.”
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Featured image from NBC News, chart from TradingView.com