Treasury chief Janet Yellen urges Congress to act on crypto market regulation

The recent failure of a major cryptocurrency exchange, i.e., FTX, and its impact on investors in crypto assets "demonstrate the need for more effective oversight of cryptocurrency markets," U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement Wednesday. The U.S.'s "very strong investor and consumer protection laws for most of our financial products and markets" need to be strongly enforced, she said. "The federal government, including Congress, also needs to move quickly to fill the regulatory gaps the Biden Administration has identified," Yellen added. She pointed out that some of the risks identified by the President's Working Group on Financial Markets and Treasury Department reports were at the center of crypto market stresses that came to light in the past week. Those include comingling of customer assets, lack of transparency, and conflicts of interest. A recent report from the Financial Stability Oversight Council, which the U.S. Treasury chairs, warned that further interconnections between the traditional financial system and crypto asset markets "could raise broader financial stability concerns." In February 2022, the Financial Stability Oversight Council said the crypto market could evolve to the point where it represents a risk to global financial stability, Dear readers: We recognize that politics often intersects with the financial news of the day, so we invite you to click here to join the separate political discussion.