Washington, DC – Earlier today, Congressman Frank Lucas (OK-03) appeared on Bloomberg Crypto to discuss the bipartisan House Financial Services Committee hearing related to the collapse of digital asset trading platform FTX. 

Click here to watch the full interview.

On need for congressional action:

“I wish I could say that, but clearly this is a multibillion-dollar mess that’s going to continue. When Mr. Ray pointed out to us that the bookkeeping system was rudimentary, off the shelf, small business software being used to manage a multibillion-dollar enterprise; when he discussed the lack of strong board management in the various enterprises; the ability of the CEO to loan himself money out of the company, it was horrifying. But that’s what this hearing is about. Get to the bottom of the mess so we can figure out how to make sure from Congress’ perspective this doesn’t happen again.”

Current crypto environment:

“I’ve always been a little suspicious of crypto, not so much from the perspective of the professional investors, but there are a lot of little people out there who put their money into this, who’ve been pulled in. I said in 32 of my town meetings this summer, only invest the money you don’t need. It’s the Wild West right now in crypto. Unfortunately, there was a gunfight, and the investors may have lost.”

On regulators:

“I was Chair of the Ag Committee when we had Former Senator Corzine under oath about his debacle. CFTC is a proactive entity. You come to them with ideas and concepts, they proactively make rules and regulations. Securities and Exchange Commission is a reactive group, they come in after the fact. It’s two different cultures, two different perspectives. We’ll see when all this sorts out. Incoming Chairman of the Financial Services Committee, Patrick McHenry, is very focused on bringing order to the crypto industry. We’ll see what form that takes, but it will involve both Ag and Financial Services, and we’ve got to make sure that this kind of a mess can’t happen again.”

….

“You saw the fundamental disagreement. Part of my colleagues on the Committee believe that crypto should not exist and essentially should be banned. Part of my colleagues on the Committee believe it is the future of commerce, the standard of currency. I’m not sure where we fall yet in that process, but crypto is not going away. But it’s taken a big old hit, thanks to the folks at FTX.”

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