The crypto industry has come under fire in Congress following the arrest of Sam Bankman-Fried on Tuesday, with one House Democrat accusing FTX founders of being more than just a one-off. .
“My fear is to see Sam Bankman-Fried as just a serpent in an encrypted Garden of Eden. In fact, cryptocurrency is a snake garden,” said Brad Sherman, California Democrat. The House of Representatives said at a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee.
Sherman is a known cryptocurrency critic, and his comments were made at a hearing Bankman-Fried was scheduled to attend. As MarketWatch reports, the FTX founder stole from his FTX clients, lied to investors, and made his Alameda deposits to fund riskier bets by his hedge fund. is said to have used He was arrested in the Bahamas on Monday.
read: Sam Bankman-Fried’s Deception Empire Revealed in US Government Indictment Alleging Massive FTX Fraud
FTX’s failure has prompted lawmakers to consider a number of proposals to regulate the industry, but Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler says FTX has the tools it needs. Sherman was critical of leaving oversight of the industry to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, as some lawmakers want.
Rep. Patrick McHenry, the North Carolina Republican who will lead the Financial Services Committee in the next Congress, said on Tuesday that he believes in the potential of digital assets, but next year will be “early and Frequent” promised to ask Gensler for testimony.
FTX’s current CEO, John J. Ray III, said regulation isn’t his area of expertise, but he spoke generally when asked about the industry’s next steps.
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“We need records, we need control, we need to segregate people’s money,” he said.
Meanwhile, Bankman-Fried’s attorney, Mark Cohen, said in a statement that his client “is reviewing the charges with his legal team and considering all of his legal options.” .