The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler has called for increased funding to allow the regulator to keep pace with the “increased complexity in the capital markets” and continue to tackle “misconduct” in the cryptocurrency industry. Gensler has urged President Joe Biden to allocate $2.4 billion in funding to the SEC, which would enable the agency to hire 170 additional staff, mostly within its enforcement and examination divisions. Gensler explained that this was necessary to keep up with the rapid technological innovation in the financial markets and to address emerging misconduct in the crypto space, which he described as the “wild west” rife with noncompliance.
The SEC had already received over 35,000 tips, complaints, and referrals from whistleblowers and others in the last financial year, and Gensler expects increased complexity in the capital markets to continue.
