U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler clarified his position on bitcoin in an interview with CNBC, calling it a commodity.
Perhaps the long-standing debate about whether cryptocurrencies are securities or a commodity will come to an end. In an interview with CNBC, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler stated that, according to his ideas, the properties of bitcoin meet all the characteristics of a commodity. The head of the SEC noted that his opinion concerns only bitcoin, and he is not going to discuss other cryptocurrencies.
“Cryptocurrencies are a very speculative asset class. We have known this for a long time. When people invest in cryptocurrencies, they expect a return on investment, just like when investing in other financial assets that are securities. However, this is not true for all cryptocurrencies. The only thing I’m going to say is that bitcoin is a commodity,” Gensler said in an interview with reporters.
Gensler’s announcement came a month after a similar view was expressed by Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Rostin Behnam, who said Bitcoin and Ethereum are commodities. The crypto community enthusiastically supported Gensler’s position.
“It is very significant that Gensler became the second chairman of the SEC to declare bitcoin a commodity. This makes it next to impossible to change this classification in the future,” Digital Asset Manager Eric Weiss tweeted.
MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor opined that the SEC’s position “allows politicians, agencies, governments, and institutions to support bitcoin as a technology and digital asset to grow the economy and expand property rights.”
Gensler is pushing for a single set of rules that will unify and strengthen the regulation of the cryptocurrency industry. He said that the SEC has begun work on a joint memorandum of understanding with the CFTC, as a result of which a document will be issued guaranteeing transparency and security to investors and participants in the cryptocurrency market.
Source: Bits
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