U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler says he believes most crypto assets are securities.
In a CNBC interview, Gensler says Bitcoin (BTC) is the only crypto asset that fits the description of a commodity.
“Many of these financial assets, crypto financial assets, have the key attributes of a security. So some of them, they are under the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Some, like Bitcoin… my predecessors and others have said they are a commodity.”
According to the SEC Chair, investors are expecting a return on investment when they put their money in some of the “highly speculative” crypto assets.
“This is a highly speculative class. We’ve known this for a long time, the ups and downs of this speculative asset class, Bitcoin and hundreds of other tokens. And [with] many of these tokens, the investing public is hoping for a return. Just like when they invest in other financial assets we call securities.”
Turning to stablecoins that are designed to be pegged to the US dollar, Gensler says that there’s “work to be done” among various agencies, including the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), to ensure regulatory compliance.
“Working together, there are two great market regulators in this country. I have had the honor to chair the CFTC, a terrific agency. I have the honor now to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission.
A little bit different remit, a little bit different approaches. But working together with the banking regulators as well, there is work to be done there around what is called stablecoins.
There’s a lot of work to be done to really protect the investing public. And many of these tokens, right now, are potentially non-compliant.”
Last week, the SEC Chair reportedly proposed the use of a one-rule-book strategy to enhance trust and protect crypto investors from market manipulation, fraud and front running.
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