Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler said on Monday that his agency is aiming to exercise greater regulatory oversight of the $2 trillion cryptocurrency market to protect investors from an onslaught of scams.

In a speech delivered virtually, Gensler said the SEC plans to register and regulate crypto platforms, including working to separate out the custody of assets to minimize risk.

"These crypto platforms play roles similar to those of traditional regulated exchanges," Gensler said, at the Penn Law Capital Markets Association's annual conference. "Thus, investors should be protected in the same way."

Gensler is providing details about his plans to address the crypto market almost a month after President Joe Biden signed an executive order calling on the government to examine the risks and benefits of cryptocurrencies. Last year, crypto-assets worth more than $14 billion were stolen through a host of scams as well as cyberattacks.

The SEC, Gensler said, will partner with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to address platforms that trade both crypto-based security tokens and commodity tokens, as the SEC currently only oversees those that trade securities.

Gensler compared crypto-asset platforms to alternative trading systems, which are used in equity and fixed income markets. The critical difference, he said, is that the latter is used primarily by institutional investors while crypto platforms "have millions and sometimes tens of millions of retail customers directly buying and selling on the platform without going through a broker."

He said the SEC will look into whether crypto platforms should be treated by his agency more like retail exchanges.
BTCBTCBTC