Crypto on the Agenda at Republican Presidential Debate

Bitcoin, SBF, ether and SEC Chair Gensler all came up at the Republican presidential debate on Wednesday night. Pro-crypto candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said U.S. regulation needs to catch up to prevent episodes like FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried defrauding customers and Binance breaking sanctions laws. Ramaswamy announced a plan to drastically reduce the SEC workforce and relax regulations on the crypto industry, advocating for most cryptocurrencies to be treated as commodities outside the SEC’s jurisdiction. “It’s nothing short of embarrassing that Gary Gensler, the SEC chair, couldn’t even confirm in front of Congress whether Ethereum is a regulated security,” Ramaswamy said. “This is another example of the administrative state going too far.”