Gary Gensler, the chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has appeared virtually before the European Parliament to share his policy recommendations regarding the regulation of crypto assets.
Speaking to the Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs on Sept. 1, Gensler highlighted the role financial technologies jobs are playing in globalizing economic flows and undermining siloed national markets: “I think the transformation we're living through right now could be every bit as big as the internet in the 1990s.” Gensler highlighted the $2.1 trillion cryptocurrency markets as a “truly global” asset class, stating: “It has no borders or boundaries. It operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”
While Gensler stuck largely to the same pro-regulation script he’s been saying for weeks, he did diverge off into a new area when Finnish politician, Eero Heinäluoma, asked Gensler about the environmental footprint associated with crypto assets.
The politician noted the electricity consumed by the Bitcoin network was greater than The Netherlands and Sweden and exceeds “the total greenhouse gas emission reductions of electric vehicles.”
While describing Bitcoin’s environmental jobs toll as a significant “challenge,” Gensler noted the increasing popularity of more energy-efficient Proof-of-Stake (PoS) based crypto networks (which include Ethereum and Cardano) and concluded that concerns relating to the carbon emissions of crypto would become concentrated around Bitcoin as PoS adoption rises.