Wiley Nickel Slams SEC For Making ‘Crypto Less Safe For Consumers’

4 months ago

On Tuesday, Rep. Wiley Nickel (D-NC) questioned Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen on crypto currency regulation and policy during a House Financial Services Committee hearing.

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Transcript

00:00We'll go to the gentleman from North Carolina, Mr. Nichols, recognized for five minutes.

00:05Thanks so much, Secretary Yellen, for being here today. I was very glad to hear you commit

00:11to Congressman Hill that you'll continue to work with Congress to create a regulatory structure

00:16for digital assets and that you hope it will reach a quote-unquote good conclusion. I think

00:21it's especially important that we continue to work on this issue in a bipartisan way.

00:25This Congress, we're on track to be one of the least productive in our nation's history,

00:29but this is a place where we've had good bipartisan agreement, and I hope you will

00:32continue to make it a priority for this administration. I also want to talk about

00:39your role as chair of FSOC and want to echo Congressman Flood's concerns with the concentration

00:46risk in the market for crypto custody due to the SEC's misguided SAV-121, which makes crypto less

00:54safe for consumers. We have the best banks in the world. They ought to be able to take care of

01:00this custodial banking piece, but I appreciate your attention to these important issues. I

01:06certainly want to applaud you and your agency's important leadership on the global stage seeking

01:12to forward American interests, repair alliances, and isolate dictators. First question is about

01:17Russian oil. In April, I joined a bipartisan fact-finding mission to Ukraine to show our

01:23support in their war against Putin's aggression and unprovoked attack on their country. After I

01:29met with President Zelensky, it was clear to me that we need to do as much as we can to prevent

01:34Russia from fueling the war with profits from their oil exports. If we fail, we hand over Ukraine

01:40to Russia, and we know that an emboldened Putin will continue on to Eastern Europe. The U.S.-led

01:46oil price cap has reduced Russian export earnings significantly, but there's a lot more to do.

01:52On the whole, we're seeing countries comply with the price cap restrictions, but China, India,

01:57and Russia have access to limited non-G7 shipping and insurance services which don't have to comply

02:03with the cap. Secretary Yellen, what is the strategy to address the price cap circumvention,

02:08and how do you propose that we hold these countries and entities accountable? Well,

02:14so as you said, at first we had a very big impact on Russian revenues, and then to circumvent

02:24the price cap, they invested very heavily in a shadow fleet of vessels and insurance coverage,

02:33so they would free themselves of dependence on Western services, including shipping.

02:40Now, that's expensive, and they have really diverted a lot of resources from other uses

02:50in order to build that fleet. Then we took the step this past year of sanctioning some of the

03:01SOFCOM float ships that are involved in this trade, and that appeared to be effective in

03:10widening the discount that they received on Russian oil, and we continue to look at

03:17expanding those sanctions. Now, our goals from the outset with respect to the price cap were twofold,

03:27that we want to reduce Russian revenues or alternatively raise their costs of selling oil,

03:37and also we want to keep the market well supplied, and so as we contemplate additional sanctions,

03:44we really also look at what impact do we think that our actions could have on the global oil market

03:53if our sanctions raised global oil prices significantly. That would be a negative

04:01not only to American drivers, but also to countries around the world that are dependent on

04:11foreign oil, and so we want to be careful about doing it, but we continue to look at additional

04:17sanctions. Thanks so much. As the world looks for alternatives to Russian and Iranian oil,

04:23nuclear energy must play a role. Governments around the world are shifting policies toward

04:27nuclear power as clean, a reliable source of 24-7 electricity. I'm very glad the administration has

04:34rallied the world and secured pledges from 22 countries to triple their nuclear energy capacity

04:38by 2050. Unfortunately, Russia and China continue to dominate the global nuclear market. Meanwhile,

04:44U.S. companies are competing against foreign governments without meaningful support from the

04:48federal government. When countries in key strategic areas around the world need civil nuclear energy,

04:54I don't want them to rely on Russia and China. What should Congress be doing to assist the

04:59administration in deploying nuclear energy around the world? I mean, all I can really say here is

05:06the Treasury is supportive of using all available technologies, including nuclear. I mean, our role

05:17is with the multilateral development banks. They, with the exception of the EBRD, don't touch

05:26nuclear, and we have been supportive of having them review their policies in this area.

05:33My time has expired.

Wiley Nickel Slams SEC For Making ‘Crypto Less Safe For Consumers’

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