The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), America’s top financial watchdog, announced it will nearly double the number of staff in charge of protecting investors in the digital asset ecosystem.
A total of 20 personnel will be added to the crypto assets and cyber team, bringing the overall number of experts to 50. Trial counsels, staff attorneys, fraud analyzers, and supervisors are among the extra positions.
“By nearly doubling the size of this key unit, the SEC will be better equipped to police wrongdoing in the crypto markets while continuing to identify disclosure and control issues to cybersecurity,”
Gary Gensler, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, said in a statement on Tuesday.
Gensler previously stated that he believes many crypto assets will pass the Howey test and thus qualify as securities under DeFi. Meanwhile, the SEC announced in March that it was looking into the fast-growing NFT sector.
According to the SEC, the cyber team was established in September 2017 during the ICO boom to address “the spread of false information through electronic and social media, hacking and threats to trading platforms,”
It has launched over 80 enforcement proceedings linked to fraud and other misconducts over the last five years, with the most high-profile case being Ripple Labs and two of its executives. The SEC filed charges in this case for the first time in December 2020.
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