June 8 (Reuters) - The chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Thursday strongly rebutted criticism that the agency is trying to crush the crypto industry, and said many companies in the space had made a "calculated economic decision" to flout its rules.
That means most crypto exchanges have to comply with the securities laws too, he added.
"They may have made a calculated economic decision to take the risk of enforcement as the cost of doing business."
The crypto industry has attacked Gensler in recent days after the SEC sued two of the world's largest crypto exchanges, Coinbase (COIN.O) and Binance, for allegedly breaking securities laws by failing to register their operations with the agency.
The SEC alleged Coinbase traded at least 13 crypto assets that are securities, while it accused Binance of offering 12 cryptocurrency coins without registering them.
Persons:
Piper Sandler, Gary Gensler, Gensler, Brian Armstrong, Binance, Changpeng Zhao, Binance.US, Coinbase, Heath Tarbert, John McCrank, Hannah Lang, Susan Heavey, Manya, Michelle Price, Chizu Nomiyama, Matthew Lewis
Organizations:
U.S . Securities, Exchange Commission, SEC, Twitter, Coinbase, Department of Justice, U.S, Reuters, Futures Trading Commission, Manya Saini, Thomson
Locations:
New York, Washington, Gensler, Bengaluru