The traditional monetary authorities have always criticized cryptocurrencies for being the tool of evil. Around the world, regulators are having a crackdown on crypto companies, even without having sufficient knowledge of how blockchain works. Sure, it is only fair to punish the culprits of heinous crimes like money laundering, even if they belong to the crypto industry.
But when it comes to other traditional players, the authorities seem to lose their steam. There have been several controversial instances where regulators bailed out traditional companies and businessmen cheaply, especially after the 2008 crisis. The latest report of Merrill Lynch been caught criminally manipulating metal markets several times in six years is a testament of the bias by authorities.
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Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the governing body responsible for investment markets has been particularly strict when it comes to digital currencies. SEC has promised to lay down strict regulations for the crypto industry but has been a mute onlooker when it comes to traditional markets.
As per a recent report, Merrill Lynch Commodities Inc. (MLCI) manipulated the metal markets for six years from 2008 to 2014. During this period, MLCI was caught thousands of times for illegally manipulating money markets by offering questionable multi-year schemes. While many congressional representatives have called for a blanket ban on crypto, criminals like MLCI were able to dodge legal actions by $25 million to end the government investigation. All this happens while the SEC plays a mute spectator.
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Why doesn’t the congress reps voice for a ban on money markets when such incidents? Is it because they have a vested interest in the traditional markets, or just because these are culprits with the ‘established’ title. Nonetheless, MLCI is still live and running healthy. Crypto analyst and CNBC host Ran Neuner have openly criticized the SEC for its bias towards traditional companies. He asked the SEC why was it mute about the precious metals ETFs.
Hey SEC, how is it that you have no issue with precious metals ETFs but you are making such a fuss about Bitcoin? https://t.co/hdKZ5hK0Af
— Ran Neuner (@cryptomanran) June 26, 2019
