U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen referred to as for more practical oversight of cryptocurrencies Wednesday amid the current market meltdown.
“The recent failure of a major cryptocurrency exchange and the unfortunate impact that has resulted for holders and investors of crypto assets demonstrate the need for more effective oversight of cryptocurrency markets,” Yellen stated in an announcement.
“We have very strong investor and consumer protection laws for most of our financial products and markets that are designed to address these risks. Where existing regulations apply, they must be enforced rigorously so that the same protections and principles apply to crypto assets and services,” she added.
The Treasury chief additionally urged the federal government and Congress to maneuver shortly in filling regulatory gaps and warned that spillovers from the crypto market might increase broader monetary stability issues. She famous that some dangers within the crypto market embrace an absence of transparency and conflicts of curiosity up to now week.
Yellen’s feedback come after cryptocurrency change platform FTX, which was the world’s third-largest by each day buying and selling quantity, filed for chapter final Friday with liquidity struggles.
The value of Bitcoin, the world’s largest crypto by market dimension, was buying and selling round $16,550 at 8:05 a.m. EDT for a 2% each day loss. It has been down considerably from an all-time excessive of greater than $64,000 which was seen within the first half of 2021.
The worth of the cryptocurrency market was down 1.9% to $829 billion on the time, in line with knowledge from digital asset price-tracking web site CoinMarketCap. It has plummeted from a document excessive of $3 trillion final yr.
