Gary Gensler, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, said in an interview with CNBC that bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency he feels comfortable calling a commodity publicly.
Speaking on CNBC's Squawk Box, Gary Gensler reiterated his view that many cryptocurrencies are securities and remain a "highly speculative asset class."
"Many of these crypto financial assets have the characteristics of securities," and are therefore subject to SEC jurisdiction, he said. "The masses of investors want to be rewarded, just as they would when they invest in other financial assets called securities."
Gary Gensler no in an interview, acknowledged the etheric currency is also a kind of commodity, so he may be suggested that such a view, namely the etheric currency is actually a kind of securities, and that would make him and the commodity and futures trading commission (CFTC), which is in the case of the etheric currency as a commodity down regulation of its futures trading.
CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam has repeatedly said he is "certain" that both bitcoin and Ether are commodities.
Fortunately, the picture may be becoming clearer. A new bipartisan bill, called The Responsible Financial Innovation Act, aims to give The CFTC oversight of The physical market for digital assets, and it introduces new language and definitions to define digital assets. Specifically, it coined the term "ancillary assets", which refer to tokens offered to buyers under investment contracts, rather than securities in nature.
Speaking at CoinDesk's Consensus 2022 conference, Rostin Behnam said he was "very encouraged" by proposed legislation in Congress that would give his agency more authority over digital asset markets.
"One of the trickiest things we're going to have to do -- and I think they've solved that pretty well -- is decrypt between goods and security."
But Gary Gensler and Rostin Behnam are not just waiting for the bill to pass, which is far from certain.
Referring to the hundreds of tokens currently in the market, Gary Gensler recently told the Financial Times that the SEC and CFTC are working on a "memorandum of understanding" that would require the SEC to pass information to the CFTC about crypto assets representing commodities. Gensler argued for "the same set of rules" with the SEC's joint regulator for digital assets, saying that securities and commodities have become "intertwined" in the current trading environment.
"I mean the same set of rules that would protect all transactions, regardless of the pair -- security tokens to security tokens, security tokens to commodity tokens, or commodity tokens to commodity tokens. If the industry is going to move forward, it's going to have to build better trust in those markets."
Such a rulebook would protect investors from fraud, manipulation and early trading, the report argues.
"There are a lot of risks in cryptocurrencies, but there are also risks in traditional securities markets." Gary Gensler.