Alliance Herren Lee, a member of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), said yesterday that market transparency should be improved as the number of privately funded crypto unicorn companies increases.
Since 2021, the amount of funds raised by unlisted companies has exceeded the amount raised by stocks of listed companies. In addition, the number of so-called unicorn companies (unlisted venture companies with valuations exceeding $1 billion) has also increased.
Concerning the growing number of ‘Unicorns’, originally named for their rarity, Lee remarked that Unicorns are “a new, but no longer rare or mythical, kind of business.”
She added:
“Despite their outsize impact, there is little public information available about their activities. Although some of these large firms are subject to industry-specific regulation, such regulation may be quite sparse (as with the growing number of crypto-related Unicorns) or does little to address financial transparency.”
The crypto sector has seen active funding over the past year. According to the crypto media The Block, nearly $8 million were raised in private funding in the third quarter of this year alone.