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SEC's Gensler Says Crypto Firms Skip Public Disclosures by Dodging Registration
The agency chairman said that the industry could benefit from "disinfectant."
Updated Mar 22, 2024, 4:15 p.m. Published Mar 22, 2024, 4:15 p.m.
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler used a speech on the "public good" of securities disclosures on Friday to point specifically at the crypto industry as a problem area.
Gensler, whose tenure atop the agency has been marked by a legal crusade against what he argues is a largely noncompliant industry, suggested that digital assets businesses are among those seeking to "whittle away at the SEC's disclosure regime," which requires companies to register securities and provide information to investors about them.
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"There are participants in crypto securities markets that seek to avoid these registration requirements," he said in remarks prepared for an event at Columbia Law School. "No registration means no mandatory disclosure."
"Many would agree that the crypto markets could use a little disinfectant," Gensler added.
The regulator is pursuing several enforcement actions against companies it accuses of failing to register as exchanges and listing unregistered securities, such as Coinbase Inc. and Binance. It's also reportedly investigating Ethereum , potentially considering classifying that asset as a security – unlike bitcoin.
Gensler's rhetoric that crypto platforms need to get registered may be tested soon. The first firm to jump through the hoops as an approved special-purpose crypto broker-dealer, Prometheum, is getting ready to open the business to customers, executives there have said. Meanwhile, Coinbase has asked an appeals court to step in and force the SEC to engage in crypto-specific rulemaking.
Read More: U.S. SEC Asking for More Millions, Dozens of Lawyers to Beef Up Crypto Oversight
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What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
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CFTC Launches Digital Assets Pilot Allowing Bitcoin, Ether and USDC as Collateral
Acting Chair Caroline Pham has unveiled a first-of-its-kind U.S. program to permit tokenized collateral in derivatives markets, citing "clear guardrails" for firms.
What to know:
- The CFTC has launched a pilot program allowing BTC, ETH and USDC to be used as collateral in U.S. derivatives markets.
- The program is aimed at approved futures commission merchants and includes strict custody, reporting and oversight requirements.
- The agency also issued updated guidance for tokenized assets and withdrew outdated restrictions following the GENIUS Act.
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