- SEC chair Gary Gensler has reiterated that Bitcoin isn’t a security, reminding investors that they can now buy into the crypto through exchange-traded products.
- Gensler refused to comment on Donald Trump’s plan for a strategic Bitcoin reserve, saying he doesn’t want to influence voters in an election year.
Does Gary Gensler support Donald Trump’s plan to establish a national Bitcoin reserve if the Republican candidate wins the election later this year? This was the question posed to the SEC chair in a CNBC interview, and in a true Gensler fashion, he danced around the question and offered no concrete answer.
Gary Gensler is easily the most hated man in crypto. However, it was he who finally approved Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs this year, with the BTC ETFs being a massive success and attracting nearly a million BTC. By doing so, he finally gave the regulatory guarantee that Bitcoin and Ether are not securities, a point he reiterated recently.
In an interview with CNBC, he stated:
As it relates to bitcoin, my predecessor and I have said, that’s not a security. You now have a way that you can actually express that view — buy into that through exchange-traded products.
Ether and BTC remain the only digital assets that the SEC has exempted from securities classification. This allows investors to place their money in these two without any concern that there may be a crackdown. It also allows crypto exchanges to offer them without any worries—offering a security requires a much heavier licensing burden for an exchange.
Despite being embroiled in a multi-year lawsuit with Ripple, the SEC has still not given XRP a clean bill of health. However, it has cleared secondary sales of XRP, giving investors some confidence as they buy and sell their tokens on exchanges.
Other tokens have not even come close to being exempted from securities classification. In fact, dozens have been accused of being securities. Most recently, the watchdog expanded its lawsuit against the Binance exchange to include tokens like ATOM, Filecoin, AXS and others under the securities brackets.
Gensler Holds Back Thoughts on Trump’s Bitcoin Reserve
While Gensler may be the top crypto tsar today, it could all change quickly after the November polls. While a Kamala Harris victory might keep him at the helm of the SEC, Donald Trump has made it clear Gensler would be gone as soon as the Republican takes the oath of office.
Trump has also floated the idea of the US having a national Bitcoin reserve. Asked about it, Gensler decided to be diplomatic and give a generic answer, holding back his real thoughts on the topic.
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.
On regulations, Gensler insisted that the existing laws are enough for crypto, and that “not liking the rules is not the same as that there aren’t rules.” He added:
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. What innovative field in America survives without having building trust in that field and protecting investors or consumers?
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