United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Gary Gensler has found a new audience for his crypto-skeptical pep talks โ the United States Army.
On Jan. 11 the U.S. Army hosted its first Twitter Space of 2023 with Gensler and SEC commissioner Caroline Crenshaw joining the discussion to provide financial advice on how and where U.S. soldiers should invest their money.
โ U.S. Army (@USArmy) January 11, 2023
Sergeant Lawrence Holmes noted โthere are soldiers that look for those alternative investments [such as] crypto assetsโ asking the pair what risks there were to crypto investing.
โItโs the Wild West,โ Gensler answered, adding that โmost of these 10,000 or 15,000 tokens will fail.โ
โHistory tells us there’s not much room for micro currencies, meaning, you know, we have the U.S. dollar and Europe has the euro and the like.โ
He urged soldiers not to โget caught up in the FOMO โ the fear of missing outโ saying cryptocurrencies are โhighly speculativeโ and โnon-compliant.โ
โMost of these are not complying with the securities laws, but they should be.โ
Gensler further advised that if the G.I.โs see a yield thatโs โtoo good to be true โ it probably isโ regardless of whether itโs crypto-based or not.
Crenshaw added to Genslerโs comments saying cryptocurrencies are โnoted for their scamsโ and stated:
โThey claim to be transparent, whatโs on the blockchain is transparent but the rest of whatโs there is not transparent and I think there have been some examples of that recently.โ
She said those considering a crypto investment should give โcareful, careful considerationโ to the percentage of their portfolio they devote to digital assets.
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As for the SECโs advice on where U.S. Army personnel should place their dollars, Crenshaw told troops to invest โas much as possibleโ in a Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) โ a government-sponsored retirement plan for federal employees and service members.
