During a House hearing on crypto regulation on Wednesday, SEC Chair Gary Gensler was questioned about his interest in Pokemon cards and bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Legislators were critical of Gary Gensler, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, over his agency’s attitude to cryptocurrency regulation.
On Wednesday, Gensler testified before a House committee and addressed questions on the agency’s plans to approve bitcoin exchange-traded funds, the legality of bitcoin as currency, and the potential security status of Pokemon trading cards.
House Financial Services Committee Chairman (and North Carolina Republican) Patrick McHenry started out by asking Gensler whether bitcoin is a security. In the past, Gensler has claimed that “everything other than bitcoin” may be a security.
McHenry replied, “I need you to respond to my question right now.” Irrationality here is counterproductive, since “this is not supposed to be hard.”
At the outset of Wednesday’s meeting, McHenry seemed to threaten the SEC chair with a subpoena, accusing Gensler of not being forthcoming to Congress about his dealings with collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX and its former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.
McHenry warned that if the SEC did not treat Congress as an equal arm of government and cooperate with congressional oversight efforts, he would be forced to resort to subpoena power.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) echoed Gensler’s support for the agency in her opening comments while also expressing alarm about the effects of a potential government shutdown.
