GameStop, Bitcoin dominate Biden’s SEC pick Gary Gensler’s confirmation hearing

Biden's SEC pick will inherit the GameStop frenzy

Lawmakers grilled President Biden's pick to head the Securities and Exchange Commission Gary Gensler on Tuesday and he took the tough questions in stride.

His confirmation hearing comes at a precarious time for U.S. financial markets which are seeing a robust uptick in retail traders. These small investors are behind some of the recent swings tied to heavily shorted stocks, such as GameStop and AMC.

SEC SUSPENDS TRADING IN SELECT OTC NAMES

Ticker Security Last Change Change %
GME GAMESTOP CORP. 27.92 -0.51 -1.80%
AMC AMC ENTERTAINMENT 4.45 +0.01 +0.20%

Gensler, who previously led the Commodities Futures Trading Commission with an iron hand, talked about bitcoin, the role of technology in the financial markets and hinted at a possible review of how 'payment for order flow' works amid the ongoing fallout from the Robinhood trading halt in January.

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