but who will regulate the regulators?
Minnesota Representative Tom Emmer says his office is looking into allegations of a conspiracy between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman and embattled crypto exchange FTX.
According to Emmer, his office received reports that SEC chair Gary Gensler was helping FTX and its CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), acquire a regulatory monopoly in the crypto space.
The legislator did not present any evidence to back up his claim but says that his office is conducting an investigation into the matter
According to Washington insiders I spoke with, the reason behind SBF’s decision this summer to obtain control over BlockFi was to benefit from the troubled crypto lender’s recent settlement with the SEC—basically extending the amnesty BlockFi had received to FTX. Meanwhile, FTX’s recent tie-up with the securities exchange IEX (of Flash Boys fame) would also help SBF’s empire come under the U.S. regulatory umbrella. All of this would clear FTX to have the U.S. market to itself as the company lobbied for legislation that could have torpedoed competitors like Binance as well as the emerging DeFi sector.
