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SEC’s Gensler Uses Crypto Oversight Needs as Case for Higher Budget
SEC Chair Gary Gensler told U.S. House budget appropriators that he’d like to be doing more to protect crypto investors.
Updated May 11, 2023, 4:56 p.m. Published May 18, 2022, 6:18 p.m.
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Gary Gensler, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, made a pitch for a higher budget Wednesday, telling lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives that he wants to do more as a cop on the cryptocurrency beat.
Gensler, in testimony before members of the House Appropriations Committee, said, "I wish we had more to be able to dedicate to this."
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He cited the recent firestorm that consumed terraUSD (UST) as an example of the industry’s investor-protection need, telling lawmakers “there was one crypto complex that went from $50 billion in value to zero just in the last three weeks.”
He explained his 1,300-person enforcement division has a little more than 50 people concentrating on this space after recently adding another 20. That still leaves the agency outgunned on crypto cases, arguing that “the public is not protected."
He granted Wednesday that bitcoin is one of a very small number of likely commodity tokens that belong under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s lens, but the vast majority belong under the SEC’s jurisdiction. And any exchange that handles trading in even one of them “should register with us as a national exchange.”
“We've actually said publicly – and we've talked with many of these exchanges one-on-one – come in,” he said. “Work with us.”
Meanwhile, he said the SEC will conduct a “robust enforcement effort” as he also called out crypto firms for vulnerability to hackers and the practice of making investment bets against their customers.
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KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.
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- KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
- This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume, as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes, which slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
- Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split, each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
- Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
- Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.
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Senate Agriculture panel delays market structure hearing to Thursday after winter storm
The Senate Agriculture Committee pushed its planned markup hearing, where lawmakers would debate and vote on its market structure bill, to Thursday morning.
What to know:
- The Senate Agriculture Committee postponed its crypto market structure markup hearing from Tuesday to Thursday, citing the winter storm which hit much of the U.S. over the weekend.
- The committee will debate and vote on the bill and proposed amendments to it during the hearing.
- The SEC and CFTC similarly postponed a joint appearance by its chiefs from Tuesday to Thursday.
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