Congressman Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) has called for two separate independent investigations of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its haphazard and heavy-handed approach to digital assets. In two letters made public on Thursday, Torres requested investigations into the SEC’s granting of a special purpose broker-dealer (SPBD) license to Prometheum, a trading digital assets platform that does not trade digital assets, and its failure to create a process for registering real-world digital assets platforms.
The dubious decision to license a deceptive digital assets platform reflects the latest attempt by Chair Gary Gensler to politicize the registration process to an extent seldom seen in the SEC’s history, Torres wrote. When it comes to trading platforms that operate in the real world, the SEC’s path to registration remains a bridge to nowhere.
The letters were addressed to the SEC’s Inspector General Deborah Jeffrey and the Government Accountability Office’s Comptroller General Gene Dodaro. Torres described the SEC as an overzealous traffic agent who arbitrarily tickets drivers for speeding while keeping everyone endlessly guessing about the speeding limit, adding that regulation by enforcement is no way to regulate.