WASHINGTON—The Securities and Exchange Commission will police cryptocurrency markets to the maximum extent possible, Chairman Gary Gensler said Tuesday, repeating his call for Congress to grant the agency more authority and resources to regulate the sector.
“Right now, we just don’t have enough investor protection in crypto. Frankly, at this time, it’s more like the Wild West,” Mr. Gensler said in prepared remarks to the Aspen Security Forum. “We have taken and will continue to take our authorities as far as they go.”
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U.S. financial regulators have struggled to get their arms around the fast-growing world of cryptocurrency and related financial technologies. Unlike in the securities and derivatives markets, no single regulator oversees crypto exchanges or brokers. As the market value of the asset class has exploded, so have scams.
Mr. Gensler, a veteran Democratic regulator who taught a course on cryptocurrency at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, highlighted a range of areas in which the SEC could expand its oversight.
