The US SEC has decided to hire the new officials to police coin offerings, non-fungible tokens, and decentralized finance, it said in a press release.
Now, the SEC will have 50 officials monitoring and working towards tracing and finding violators of the law in coin offerings, lending, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and decentralized finance (DeFi).
Gary Gendler, Chairman of the SEC, had complained about firms like Coinbase, which failed to register before it started offering “security-like tokens.” The Chairman had hinted about these new hirings back in September 2021 when he said that the new upcoming responsibility would require “a lot more people” at the SEC.
The SEC scrutinizes and administers those offering to sell/buy traditional securities (shares) and those who advise on broker trades. The recent proposals by the agency have indicated an extension of enforcement action towards decentralized finance (DeFi). This puts more regulatory hurdles in front of crypto projects in the US. Reports of NFTs being included in the same strata are also being discussed in the crypto community.
The dedicated unit has taken more than eighty law enforcement actions against unregistered and fraudulent coin offerings, where the monetary relief amounted to more than $2 billion.
