Senate Banking Committee Chair Asks Regulators to Strengthen Crypto Disclosures

Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown (D-OH) pressed Treasury, the SEC and the CFTC to take further action to remedy disclosure deficiencies associated with digital asset tokens and digital asset platforms.

In a Letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, SEC Chair Gary Gensler and CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam, Senator Brown asserted that there is a "troubling lack of customer-facing disclosure in crypto markets," citing almost $10 billion in losses from the previous year as a result of crypto scams or hacks. He warned that disclosures in the crypto market are "frequently erroneous or fail to align with the software code behind a token." He argued that investors' lack of "basic, comprehensive transparency" - which would be provided in any other market - "cannot become the 'status quo.'" He urged Treasury, the SEC and the CFTC to evaluate their current authorities to address the disclosure deficiencies and to use existing regulatory tools to hold bad actors accountable.