Crypto companies should comply with law: Head of US regulator

By Ovunc Kutlu

ISTANBUL (AA) - The head of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said Wednesday that cryptocurrency companies that facilitate transactions in the market should comply with existing laws.

"The entrepreneurs in this field have chosen to try and skirt the law, whether they're setting up overseas and servicing overseas actors," Gary Gensler told Yahoo Finance. "But if they're tapping into US markets, they need to come into compliance."

Gensler called facilitators that act as intermediaries as "crypto casinos" and argued that some are possibly trading against their customers.

"The runway is getting shorter" between crypto firms' compliance and enforcement of the SEC, he said.

Gensler’s comments follow the sudden collapse of FTX, once the world's third-largest cryptocurrency exchange by daily trading volume, which caused a rapid meltdown in the cryptocurrency market.