United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman, Gary Gensler, has commented that Bitcoin is the only crypto he considers outside the SEC’s regulatory scope. He considers Bitcoin as a commodity which is in the purview of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). He was presenting his views in an interview on June 27.
The remark of the SEC Chairman is very important for the crypto community as the comments declare all cryptocurrencies (except bitcoin), including Ethereum (ETH), to be digital currencies open to SEC’s regulatory scrutiny.
He stated during the interview:
“In many altcoins, the Public is hoping for a return just like in other financial assets we call securities, and many of these crypto-assets have key attributes of security… Bitcoin is the only one I am going to say… it’s a commodity.”
SEC Chairman views on Ethereum are contradicting
The views of the present chairman are contradicting one of the former SEC executives as in 2018 William Hinman, the former head of the SEC’s Corporation Finance, stated that Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency, was a commodity. After that most of the crypto players have felt that ETH is a commodity. He does not seem to agree with Hinman’s Ethereum classification.
The views are also contradicting what the CFTC chairman said in a recent interview. On May 16, Rostin Behnam, Chairman of the CFTC, announced that the CFTC has labelled Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) as commodities. According to the CFTC Chairman, regulators must analyse various tokens to see if they qualify as securities or commodities.
Why the views are important
The SEC has accused Ripple and two of its employees of executing an unauthorised securities issuance in late 2020. The dispute has been ongoing for almost a year, with some experts estimating that it would be resolved by March of next year.
With the SEC chairman considering just Bitcoin as a commodity, other virtual currencies are expected to follow Ripple’s path, and it is just a question of time before SEC initiates a fresh lawsuit against these crypto ventures.
