The post Ripple Lawyer Exposes Gensler’s Crypto Oversight in Congressional Face-Off appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News
A top Ripple lawyer took a public swipe at SEC Chairman Gary Gensler after the regulator faced pressure in Congressional testimony over his strict crypto oversight approach. Ripple Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty said Gensler “didn’t know what hit him” when grilled on defining crypto assets as securities at a Tuesday House hearing.
Alderoty highlighted tough questions thrown at Gensler
Alderoty spotlighted tough questioning from Representative Torres, who challenged Gensler on using the broad “investment contract” test to categorize cryptocurrencies. Torres pushed Gensler to explain if buying a Pokemon card requires an underlying contract, visibly flustering the SEC chief, unaccustomed to skepticism.
In a tweet, Alderoty cheered Torres for dexterously backing Gensler into a corner in the exchange caught on video. The Ripple lawyer said the SEC chairman was blindsided by the intensity of doubts raised over his security designation rationale.
The spat spilled into public view when Alderoty predicted Gensler would use the Congressional platform to push disputed classifications. A day before the hearing, he claimed Gensler would falsely insist a broad “crypto asset securities market” exists to justify XRP intervention.
Gensler then followed the script, reiterating that most crypto tokens meet the investment contract or “Howey Test” criteria. Alderoty seized the chance to blast the SEC chief’s stance when Torres challenged assumptions underlying his security definitions.
The confrontation captured growing unease with Gensler’s posture, even among lawmakers supportive of crypto oversight. Torres exposed hesitancy and contradictions around the sweeping categorization of digital assets as securities by default.
Alderoty believes the revealing exchange highlights the overextension of SEC authority via ambiguous classifications. In his view, Gensler failed to justify reflexively treating crypto assets like securities rather than commodities.