U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler today celebrated Bitcoin’s birthday by using Halloween to poke fun at its creator.
The top regulator directed crypto companies to comply with securities laws in a Twitter post on Tuesday.
Fifteen years ago, the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto published a Bitcoin whitepaper. Bitcoin: A peer-to-peer electronic cash system. The paper, published online on October 31, 2008, laid out a plan to allow anyone to make payments “without going through a financial institution.”
Gensler writes, “If Satoshi Nakamoto acted as Satoshi Nakamoto on Halloween, would we know?”
He added, “Congratulations to crypto founder Satoshi on the 15th anniversary of his famous white paper. Cryptocurrency companies that are defrauding investors should start taking action to comply with securities laws.” added.
Under Gensler’s watch, the SEC has cracked down on the digital asset industry like never before, suing major crypto companies such as Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken.
The top regulator’s biggest complaint about the industry is that many companies sell coins and tokens that are considered unregistered securities.
But crypto industry figures and lawmakers have criticized Gensler for not making the rules clear enough. They claim he regulates by enforcement and promotes innovation abroad.
Gensler responded that the rules are already clear enough.
“Those are called securities regulations, and when someone is trying to raise money from the public, there are disclosure regulations,” the SEC chairman told lawmakers in March.
He also argued that the U.S. “doesn’t need more digital currencies” and that the industry “is built on non-compliance.”
