SEC Chairman Gary Gensler spoke positively about the 2 largest cryptocurrencies in the market.
Cryptocurrency explanation from Gary Gensler
SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said that the regulatory agency’s current rules provide a clear roadmap for crypto companies, despite what they want. Gensler said on Thursday that the crypto market does not need to set any special rules for projects that issue tokens.
Framing the issue as investor protection, Gensler said the rules and regulations that crypto issuers and service providers must follow have been clear for years. Gensler made the following statements in his statement to the Practicing Law Institute:
Nothing related to crypto markets is inconsistent with securities laws. Investor protection is equally important regardless of the underlying technologies.
Gensler’s remarks are perhaps the clearest indication that the SEC plans to continue to apply existing rules and regulations to the crypto industry, contrary to the hopes of investors and entrepreneurs that the agency will create some form of voting that would allow startups to issue tokens. Gensler also reiterated his view that “most crypto tokens are investment contracts.” However, he pointed to past SEC publications such as the DAO report and the Munchee warrant as guidelines that developers and entrepreneurs can and should follow.
I welcome CFTC’s Bitcoin and Ethereum smoothing
Gensler said that when discussing regulations for these two cryptocurrencies, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) will support regulation of Bitcoin and Ethereum. Gensler stated that in his view, Bitcoin is the only non-secure cryptocurrency. The head of the SEC did not comment on Ethereum.