SEC could facilitate ‘different set of disclosures’ for crypto, Gensler says

The Securities and Exchange Commission could facilitate “a different set of disclosures” for crypto securities, SEC Chair Gary Gensler told Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) on Thursday.

“The entrepreneurs - that's where the disclosure obligation ought to be. We have authorities now to facilitate a different set of disclosures,” Gensler said. “The public does not have a disclosure obligation when they buy a stock on the New York Stock Exchange, and it's not the public that should have a disclosure obligation if they buy some crypto security token.”

Gensler appeared before the Senate Banking Committee during a regular SEC oversight hearing. Lummis, who sits on the committee, released a sweeping cryptocurrency regulation bill with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) over the summer. The Wyoming lawmaker asked Gensler for his opinion on the need for disclosures in digital asset markets, and for his views on a section of her bill.

“I think that the investor should not have an obligation. It's the intermediaries and then it's the common enterprise, or the folks in the middle,” Gensler said, noting that the SEC has different disclosures for asset-backed securities and equities. 

Lummis said she and Gillibrand do not expect their crypto bill to come before the committee before the end of the year, and plan to reintroduce the legislation in January. 

“We want to make sure that between now and January, we've worked with you and your staff, to make sure that we can address items that we can mutually agree need to be in the bill,” Lummis said.