U.S. Senator Pat Toomey says illegal actions by crypto exchange FTX must be separated “from perfectly lawful and innovative cryptocurrencies.” 

“There was unauthorized lending of customer assets to an affiliated entity, and there were fraudulent promises to investors and customers about FTX’s operations. These are outrageous and completely unacceptable,” the senator described, emphasizing:

I want to underscore a bigger issue here: The wrongful behavior that occurred here is not specific to the underlying asset. What appears to have happened here is a complete breakdown in the handling of those assets.

“In our discussion of FTX today, I hope we are able to separate potentially illegal actions from perfectly lawful and innovative cryptocurrencies,” he told the Senate committee.

Noting that cryptocurrencies “are actually software,” Senator Toomey explained: “What we should all understand here is one simple thing: The code committed no crime. FTX and cryptocurrencies are not the same thing. FTX was opaque, centralized, and dishonest. Cryptocurrencies are open-source, decentralized, and transparent.”