Sept 24 (Reuters) - Lawmakers from both major parties in

the House of Representatives on Tuesday renewed their attacks on

Wall Street's chief regulator over his agency's policies on

cryptocurrencies, accusing the U.S. Securities and Exchange

Commission of hampering the industry's growth.

The sometimes heated questioning coincides with mounting

election-year political pressure and soaring campaign cash

contributions from the industry, which SEC Chair Gary Gensler

has described as rife with criminality and other non-compliance

leading to steep investor losses.

All five of the SEC's members appeared on Tuesday at a

hearing of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee, only the

third time this has happened in the past 17 years, allowing

Republican commissioners to voice dissent alongside its majority

Democratic members.

Senior Republican lawmakers were joined by some Democrats in

expressing stern displeasure.

Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry, a Republican, said the

SEC had referred to digital assets using a series of different

terms that left the crypto industry unsure was to what assets

fell under SEC jurisdiction.

Gensler said the distinction was "less about the terms. It's

more about the economics," referring to Supreme Court precedent

on the definition of securities as investment contracts.

However, Republican Commissioner Hester Peirce, a vocal

critic of Gensler's policies, said the agency had "taken a

legally imprecise view to mask the regulatory lack of clarity."

This created questions as to whether an asset was a

security, part of an investment contract or sold alongside one,

which then affected sales, Peirce said.

Since taking office, Gensler has insisted the existing

securities laws are sufficient for regulating the crypto

industry, rebuffing calls for industry-specific regulations.

Gensler also defended a 2022 SEC accounting bulletin that

lawmakers in May unsuccessfully sought to rescind and which

calls on public companies safeguarding crypto assets to record

them as balance sheet liabilities.

A series of bankruptcies had shown the practice was

justified, Gensler said.

Gensler also said, depending on the outcome of November's

elections, his agency could try again to issue regulations

governing corporate disclosures about share buybacks, following

a 2023 court decision striking down an SEC rule adopted last

year.