Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren is calling on Congress and the SEC to take a more assertive stance with crypto, in light of recent high-profile bankruptcy From lenders like Celsius, Wald, Voyager and BlockFi.
Warren told yahoo finance said on Monday that “Congress needs to act, but the SEC has a responsibility to use its officials to railroad and crack down on crypto actors who break the rules.”
The Massachusetts senator said she is “ringing alarm bells on cryptocurrencies” and recommends imposing “strong regulations” on the sector to ensure the safety of customers’ funds.
She added that “a lot of crypto firms are capable of defrauding customers and leaving ordinary investors to bag while insiders get away with their money.”
Monday’s comments are the latest in what has become a highly critical stance on all things crypto.
Warren on Mining, DeFi and Bitcoin Retirement Plans
In December last year, Warren wrote a stern letter to the company’s CEO, Jeff Kirt. Bitcoin Mining company Greenidge, c. picking upa barnes The operation’s “high energy use and carbon emissions” which, she argued, could harm the environment and raise electricity costs for ordinary consumers.
Later that month, speaking on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Warren called for increasingly decentralized finance (DeFi) sector “one of these” the darkest part Why crypto? ,
He elaborated that DeFi is “where regulation is effectively absent and it is no surprise – this is where scammers and fraudsters and thugs meet between part-time investors and first-time crypto traders.”
In May of this year, Warren criticized Fidelity Investments plans to allow customers to allocate Bitcoin in their 401(k) retirement savings accounts.
With Senator Tina Smith, Democrat of Minnesota, wrote Warren a letter Pointing out the volatility of crypto to Fidelity CEO Abigail Johnson and asking her how Fidelity plans to deal with “significant risks such as fraud, theft and loss”.
The lawmakers also noted, “Bitcoin’s volatility is only heightened by its sensitivity to the whims of a few influential people.” they Tesla CEO elected Elon Musk, whose “mere tweet caused bitcoin’s value to fluctuate by up to 8%.”
“We are concerned that Fidelity will take on these risks with the retirement savings of millions of Americans,” the letter reads.
Opposing Warren, a group of Republicans drafted a bill later that month to prevent the U.S. Department of Labor from restricting the types of investments that 401(k) account holders can choose.
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