The Chairman of the SEC gave an interview to the New YorkMagazine February 23. During the interview, Gary Gensler mainly talked about the crypto sector. He made an intriguing statement about digital assets that industry lawyers didn’t appreciate. Read about recent comments from the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding crypto.
Cryptos would all be securities, apart from bitcoin
The Chairman of the SEC told the New YorkMagazine what he thinks about digital assets. He said that each of them except bitcoin (BTC) is a security. He added that anything other than Bitcoin falls under the jurisdiction of the US regulator. Gary Gensler pointed out that digital assets are securities for a very specific reason.
“Because there is a group in the middle and the public anticipates profits based on this group», has explained the head of the American regulator. For the chairman of the SEC, bitcoin does not meet this criterion, therefore not constituting a security. Crypto lawyers were quick to react, attacking Gary Gensler.
Lawyers say regulator should not control industry
According to crypto legal experts, the SEC lacks the authority to regulate the crypto space. Jake Chervinsky, a lawyer and policy officer at the Blockchain Association, a crypto advocacy group, reacted. On February 26, he said that “Gensler’s opinion is not the law“. He added that the SEC will only have authority to control each of the tokens on one condition. The latter is that the regulator proves its competence on each digital asset.
Another attorney, called Logan Bolinger, said:Gensler’s opinions on what is or is not a security are not legally binding“. He precised : “Judges, not SEC chairmen, ultimately determine what the law means and how it applies“.
The general counsel for investment firm Delphi Labs commented on the SEC Chairman’s remarks. Gabriel Shapiro explained that considering these, more than 12,300 tokens would be illegal in the United States. Yet these so-called unregistered securities are worth an estimated $663 billion.
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