Mark Cuban Tells Harris Camp FTX Debacle May Have Been Prevented in US Beneath Completely different SEC Management

Billionaire investor Mark Cuban says he instructed Vice President Kamala Harris’ crypto advisor over lunch the collapse of FTX might have been prevented if U.S. Securities and Change Fee Chair Gary Gensler had not been on the helm.

Talking throughout an interview with Farokh Sarmad of Rug Radio, a sister firm of Decrypt, Cuban criticized the SEC’s reliance on enforcement by litigation quite than implementing proactive regulation tailor-made to the crypto business.

“What I stated was, ‘Have a look at FTX US and FTX Japan.’ I stated, ‘If Gary Gensler would have accomplished simply what they did in Japan—FTX, Three Arrows Capital— none of them would have gone out of enterprise,’” Cuban instructed Sarmad. 

The SEC didn’t instantly return Decrypt’s request for remark.

Cuban pointed to Japan’s regulatory framework, which mandates that crypto companies collateralize digital property held on behalf of shoppers, as a mannequin that might have prevented the disaster that shook the business in 2022.

The island nation grew to become one of many first main economies to implement a complete regulatory framework for digital property. Its Monetary Providers Company framework for regulating crypto exchanges is a part of the nation’s Fee Providers Act and Monetary Devices and Change Act. 

Coming into impact in 2017, Japan’s framework mandates strict oversight of crypto exchanges, together with the requirement for exchanges to separate buyer property from their very own and preserve adequate reserves to make sure that buyer funds are protected. 

Rules had been additional strengthened after the Coincheck hack in 2018, resulting in stricter oversight and extra necessities for crypto exchanges to safeguard buyer property, together with enhanced safety protocols and capital necessities.

Particularly, Japan requires crypto companies to carry collateral for digital property they handle on behalf of shoppers, making certain that the property are backed and guarded in case of insolvency or different operational failures.

“It’s important to put it in chilly storage so it is segregated,” Cuban stated, referring to the necessity to separate consumer funds from a crypto enterprise’ management. “You possibly can’t simply take the cash like [former FTX CEO] Sam Bankman-Fried did and mortgage it to your self.”

Crypto political panorama

Cuban’s feedback come as tensions between political camps in crypto have flared within the lead-up to the U.S. election in November. Lots of these throughout the business consider former President Donald Trump to be a stronger candidate defending their pursuits.

Trump has vowed to show the U.S. into the “crypto capital of the planet” if re-elected. His platform features a pro-crypto stance, and he has stated he intends to foster a extra crypto-friendly regulatory atmosphere, which contrasts with the SEC’s present strategy beneath Gensler.

Harris, in the meantime, has remained obscure on particular future insurance policies for crypto, saying her administration would “spend money on biomanufacturing and aerospace, stay dominant in AI and quantum computing, blockchain and different rising applied sciences.”

In any case, the revelation that Cuban instructed Harris stronger laws might have helped keep away from an business collapse provides to the prevailing discussions the billionaire claims to have already taken place along with her advisors.

In July, Cuban claimed he had acquired “a number of questions from her camp about crypto,” taking it as a “good signal” that Harris was receptive to shoring up laws on the earth’s largest economic system.