U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler reiterated his stance that bitcoin (BTC) is “not a security” but doubled down on his stated position that regulatory clarity exists for the crypto space in an interview with CNBC on Thursday.
“As it relates to bitcoin, my predecessor and I have said, that’s not a security,” Gensler said. “You now have a way that you can actually express that view — buy into that through exchange-traded products.” Such products were approved by the SEC in January, marking a monumental shift in the agency’s approach to the crypto space.
Gensler was responding to CNBC’s Joe Kernen asking whether the SEC chair was “warming up to top-tier crypto?” “Where are you on what’s called altcoins, there’s 15 or 20 thousand of them. Where are you Joe?” Gensler asked. Gensler refused to reveal a position on what he thought about Donald Trump’s idea “to keep the current government holdings “as the core of the strategic national bitcoin stockpile.” “I have a view but given my role and also we are in election season so for the listening public I will stick to my chalk lines which are securities markets and chairman Powell and others can speak to that.”
Apart from bitcoin, Gensler has maintained that the vast majority of other tokens fit the legal definition of securities that are rightfully under the SEC’s jurisdiction. This position remains despite industry push back, lawsuits against the SEC and a recent hammering the SEC got for two hours during a congressional hearing titled “Dazed and Confused: Breaking Down the SEC’s Politicized Approach to Digital Asset.”
Asked by CNBC if the SEC had been regulating by litigation, Gensler once again argued that current laws give his agency the power to oversee the crypto space. “Not liking the rules is not the same as that there aren’t rules.” Gensler also said that he didn’t know where bitcoin will be in 20 years but that that he felt “the field is going to have a challenge building trust” which it is “already” when “there’s so many fraudsters, scammers.”
“Look at the leading lights in this field, in the crypto field just two years ago. A number of them are in jail right now, and I’m not just talking about SBF… there’s been tens of billions of dollars of losses and bankruptcies and so forth,” Gensler said on Thursday. “What innovative field in America survives without having building trust in that field and protecting investors or consumers?”
