U.S. lawmakers criticize SEC for not focusing on cracking down on bad actors in encryption, but "declaring war on the entire industry"

Odaily Planet Daily News The Democratic House of Representatives Ritchie Torres criticized the US SEC on Friday and advocated the establishment of new laws. Ritchie Torres said, “The SEC’s approach under its chairman, Gary Gensler, has always been regulation through enforcement. I think he has taken arbitrary and capricious actions against cryptocurrency innovators.” Instead of focusing on bad actors in the cryptocurrency space, the SEC has “declared war on the entire industry,” Torres added. Torres also expressed support for a recently proposed market structure bill, the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act. The bill would define which cryptoassets fall under the SEC’s jurisdiction; the SEC will have jurisdiction over an asset until it is proven that it is sufficiently decentralized. Crypto assets would then be considered commodities and come under the jurisdiction of the CFTC. (Cryptoslate) As previously reported, the Financial Services Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives voted to approve the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act on Wednesday, and the Agriculture Committee approved the bill on Thursday.