According to Senator Pat Toomey, who is well-known for his enthusiastic support for the crypto industry, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) could have saved $12 billion in assets from being lost by businessmen investing in Celsius, a crypto trading platform, trusts that started shaking their cryptocurrency reserves in June. Toomey’s official letter to SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, dated July 26, claimed that the Commission’s failure to specify how it would implement current securities regulations on digital assets and services was having unexpected consequences. Toomey explains: “Companies could have adjusted product offerings accordingly, preventing investors’ losses today, and the SEC would have been free to focus enforcement efforts on the worst actors.” SEC Governs Through “Selective Prosecution” Toomey claims that the SEC failed to adequately clarify how the Howey and Reves criteria related to crypto payment platform products that charged interest to consumers who made crypto deposits. He instead claimed that the SEC had opted to govern through selective prosecution. The senator brought up the most recent insider trading accusations against a previous Coinbase employee, stating that the SEC had a clear opinion on the securities status of these assets but did not officially reveal that judgment before starting a prosecution. According to Toomey, the SEC’s continuous failure to provide regulatory clarity to the crypt...
