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Bitcoin and crypto were on the agenda during the Republican presidential debate, with one contender chastising regulators for not doing enough and allowing FTX to happen. GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy pushed back on the narrative that Bitcoin (BTC) and digital assets bootstrap criminal activity by facilitating unchecked money transfers through decentralized networks.  Ramaswamy said that Bitcoin offered an alternative to America’s broken financial architecture” and that his policies would bolster economic freedom in the United States. When asked if legitimizing the burgeoning crypto industry would not also incentivize illegal activity, Ramaswamy spoke to inadequate existing policies and preexisting use of traditional financial systems by criminals.  The Republican candidate also said that agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and its current chair, Gary Gensler, failed to prevent cases like FTX, a crypto exchange founded by the convicted Sam Bankman-Frie...

In written remarks submitted ahead of a hearing before the US Senate Banking Committee, SEC Chair Gary Gensler has once again reiterated his stance on crypto. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman, Gary Gensler, doesn’t seem to change his mind on crypto despite the recent challenges the regulator faced in court. In a written testimony submitted ahead of a hearing before the US Senate Banking Committee, the SEC boss has once again doubled down on his position against the industry . He said that “most crypto tokens are subject to the securities laws” and, therefore, “most crypto intermediaries have to comply with securities laws as well.” “There is nothing about the crypto asset securities markets that suggests that investors and issuers are less deserving of the protections of our securities laws.” SEC Chair Gary Gensler Gensler also said the industry faces many problems mainly due to “wide-ranging non-complianc...

Also Read: Robinhood Wallet Now Supports Bitcoin , Dogecoin; Ethereum Swaps Enabled advertisement While the announcement on the hearings do not explicitly suggest a focus on the crypto market news, it could well be the dominant part of the US Senate and House committee hearings. Interestingly, this time around Gensler would also have to face questions on the SEC’s plans to approve the spot Bitcoin ETF filings from Blackrock, Ark Invest, Fidelity, Bitwise and others. Gary Gensler To Testify Before Two Congress Panels According to a scoop from Fox Business journalist Eleanor Terrett, the US SEC Chair had agreed to testify before the U.S. Senate Banking Committee GOP as well as the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services Republicans in two separate hearings scheduled in September 2023. Following the Grayscale victory in the lawsuit against the US SEC, the onus is now on the agency to clarify on its timeline for potential approval of the spot Bi...

New York Representative Ritchie Torres had an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph to discuss why retail investors are still at risk following the XRP court ruling. On July 13, 2023, United States District Court Judge Analisa Torres ruled that Ripple’s XRP (XRP) token should not be considered a security when sold on retail digital asset exchanges. Stuart Alderoty, chief legal officer at Ripple, told Cointelegraph that last week’s ruling makes it clear that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) theory that a token can be an investment contract and, therefore, a security, no longer has support in the law. He said of the ruling: “That is not only a huge win for Ripple, but it’s a win for all of crypto in the United States. The SEC can no longer tout their record in crypto, which was, up till now, by and large, settlements with players that didn’t have the resources to fight back.” While this may be, New York Representative Ritchie Torres told Cointelegraph that the Ripple...