US representative Davidson says Biden administration should fire SEC chief Gary Gensler

Once again Gray Gensler faced huge criticism from the US representatives & accused of abusing the role of the SEC chairman.

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is the top financial regulatory body in America. Since 2021, the SEC agency brought several regulatory enforcement actions against crypto companies blindly under the leadership of Gary Gensler. Many times Gensler was criticized by the crypto proponents as well as crypto-friendly US lawmakers.

On 27 Sep 2023, During a scheduled hearing, the SEC chairman Gensler found himself in front of lawmakers to discuss his agency’s oversight of the markets.

United States Representative Andy Barr accused Gensler of kneecapping” the U.S. capital markets with harsh regulatory enforcement actions.

Mr. Barr referred to an old testimony, where Gensler called the US the most sophisticated and innovative capital market in the world, and said that if the US capital market is a gold medalist then Gensler is the Tonya Harding of securities regulations. 

People shared these statements on X (Twitter) & launched at Gensler for facing this situation.

Another U.S. Representative Warren Davidson said that he wishes that the Biden administration should fire Gensler from the role of SEC chairman.

Davidson accused Gensler of misusing the SEC chairman’s power as well as pushing a “woke” political and social agenda. 

Patrick McHenry, the chair of the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services, asked Gensler whether Bitcoin is a security & if not whether it is a commodity. In response Gensler said Bitcoin didn’t meet the Howey test & analyzing its nature under the commodity laws is outside the scope of the SEC body.

McHenry said that Bitcoin must be a commodity, which Gensler tried to avoid answering several times during the hearing. 

The House Committee on Financial Services chair also alleged that Gensler tried to choke off the crypto ecosystem under the US jurisdiction and also refused to be transparent with Congress about the SEC’s connections with now-bankrupt Crypto exchange FTX and its former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), who is currently in the jail for a high level crypto frauds.

The U.S. Representative Ritchie Torres asked Gensler whether buying Pokemon cards is subject to Securities laws. 

Gensler said that if you buy from a store then obviously not.

Further Torres asked if he would buy it from a digital platform, powered by blockchain technology then what? In response, Gensler said he needs to know more to figure out whether it will be subject to the Securities Act or not.

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