The cryptocurrency industry is reportedly targeting the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in what insiders call an “Italian vendetta” for its overly aggressive regulations during the Biden administration.
According to a new Politico report, big names in the crypto industry like Ripple, Coinbase, and Gemini executives are now taking action against SEC officials as revenge for the agency’s alleged wrongdoings of the past.
Politico reports that a former SEC employee – who was “granted anonymity over concerns of retaliation from the industry” – said they witnessed a law firm decline to move forward with interviewing an individual at the SEC because of the firm’s work in crypto, and In another instance, the former employee said, a law firm pulled an offer altogether for the same reason.
Responding to Politico, Coinbase’s chief legal officer Paul Grewal reportedly said,
“People have a right to earn a living. They have a right to take their talents wherever they want to take them… But we, too, have a right to decide who we’ll work with.”
Says William McLucas, a former enforcement director at the SEC, of the crypto industry attacks on SEC staff,
“You’re penalizing people who were basically doing their jobs.
If they want to rail about the prior commission and its leadership, go ahead.
But singling out lawyers and saying, ‘We want their names out there, we want them labeled as pariahs’ — I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Said an anonymous industry official of the attacks,
“Where’s the goddamn off-ramp? You got Gary Gensler’s scalp. There’s not that many other people you can go after.
It’s an Italian vendetta, and I don’t know what to do. Because in most vendettas, nobody actually wins. Everybody keeps dying.”
The pushback comes as the Republican-led SEC begins reversing enforcement actions initiated under former Chair Gary Gensler. Critics argue his “regulation by enforcement” approach hampered innovation in the crypto space.
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