Mark Cuban Says the SEC Approach to Crypto Led to Billions in Losses

The prominent American businessman, TV personality, investor, and owner of the Dallas Mavericks – Mark Cuban – lambasted the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for choosing “the wrong path” to regulate crypto. 

He believes its approach has been one reason why FTX investors in America have parted with substantial sums. On the other hand, he praised the actions of the Japanese regulators, outlining that “no one in FTX Japan lost money.”

Cuban Goes on the Offensive

Billionaire Mark Cuban is the latest person to bash America’s securities regulator. In one of his recent tweets, he blamed it for not setting appropriate standards in the cryptocurrency industry and thus triggering colossal investor losses:

“If the USA/SEC had followed their example by setting clear regulations that required the separation of customer and business funds and clear wallet requirements, NO ONE HERE WOULD HAVE LOST MONEY ON FTX.” 

He went further, claiming the SEC has picked the “wrong course” by turning its back on the cryptocurrency sector. The regulator is “not infallible,” it “makes mistakes,” and “was arrogant” in thinking that its rules have covered every possible situation, he concluded.

Cuban believes Japan is among the countries that have introduced a comprehensive regulatory framework on crypto. According to him, those efforts have protected local investors from the devastating impact of the FTX meltdown. Recall that the Japanese subsidiary of the once-leading cryptocurrency exchange allowed asset withdrawals at the end of February. 

Stark’s Reaction

John Reed Stark – President of John Reed Stark Consulting LLC and a former executive at the US SEC – thinks blaming the watchdog for catastrophes such as FTX, Celsius Network, Terra, and more “seems a bit of a stretch.” 

He also reminded Cuban that the Commission has saved “millions, perhaps even billions” in investor crypto-losses. 

For one, it stopped Telegram from scamming individuals with an emergency temporary restraining order (TRO), prevented BlockFi from “doing to its investors what Celsius did to theirs (and fined them $100M),” and halted Coinbase from selling a crypto-lending product. 

Stark believes the digital asset sector is an “anarchical financial industry” with no insurance, cybersecurity standards, and licensing program, making the SEC’s job quite difficult. 

He also claimed that the crypto community is hard to be pleased with since they reject and find flaws in each proposed legislation:

“For example, whenever any government law, rule, or regulation gets specific about crypto, crypto lobbying groups protest and file interminable lawsuits challenging the action.”