The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has released a bulletin advising financial professionals to exercise "heightened scrutiny" when offering complex or risky investment products such as cryptocurrencies. The SEC highlighted the added complexities or risk components of such products, making them difficult for firms to fully understand terms, features and risks. Consequently, financial professionals must acquire information about retail investors beyond a general understanding of the products, the SEC said. Kraken CEO Jesse Powell has criticised the SEC's regulatory approach, calling its "regulation by enforcement" method unhelpful for the industry and regulators. The bulletin followed SEC charges against cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex for failing to comply with securities law, taking in at least $1.3bn in illicit revenue between 2017 and 2022. Since taking over as the agency's chair two years ago, Gary Gensler said that the SEC has filed about 1,500 enforcement actions, including action against the "rampant noncompliance in the crypto markets". Coinbase is looking to expand outside the US, following regulatory uncertainties with the country's regulatory environment.

(By Andrew Asmakov)