Billionaire Mark Cuban Criticizes SEC for Throwing Crypto Startups 'Under the Bus'
Billionaire tech investor and Shark Tank star Mark Cuban called out the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) earlier this week for throwing crypto startups “under the bus” with its approach to regulating the blockchain industry.
His comments were part of a lengthy debate with former SEC official John Reed Stark – a crypto skeptic who disagrees with the “number one talking point of crypto-enthusiasts” about a “lack of regulatory clarity in the cryptoverse.”
Cuban replied to Stark by citing a specific example of a crypto startup seeking to register with the SEC, which was merely told by the agency to seek out a lawyer for help. He added:
“When I and others ask for bright-line guidance and oppose “regulation via litigation” the businesses I see that are thrown under the bus by the SEC and Gary Gensler are the dorm room start-ups that are driven by sweat equity.”
Coinbase, Binance, Kraken, and other industry leaders have long criticized the SEC for not providing clear crypto industry guidelines like other jurisdictions. This especially relates to guidance on which crypto assets are securities vs commodities, and how to easily register certain products with the commission, like staking-as-a-service.
Hester Peirce – a crypto-supportive member of the agency itself – has criticized chairman Gary Gensler on this front. “In the current climate, crypto-related offerings are not making it through the SEC’s registration pipeline,” she wrote in a February statement, shortly after the SEC shutdown Kraken’s unregistered staking service.
Stark, by contrast, disagreed with Cuban that the industry lacks clarity any more than other areas of the financial sector, claiming it already has “extraordinary regulatory transparency and
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