During a recent interview, Gary Gensler, chairman of the U.S. SEC, claimed that all crypto tokens, except for Bitcoin, are securities and, therefore, fall under the agency’s purview.
Chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) asserted during a recent interview with New York Magazine, that all crypto tokens other than Bitcoin are securities. He added that almost every crypto transaction already falls under the purview of the SEC, except for spot transactions in Bitcoin itself and the sale and purchase of goods and services with crypto assets. Accordingly, Gensler says that his agency has all the necessary legal mechanisms to oversee the cryptocurrency sector.
Gensler said:
Everything other than bitcoin … you can find a website, you can find a group of entrepreneurs, they might set up their legal entities in a tax haven offshore, they might have a foundation, they might lawyer it up to try to arbitrage and make it hard jurisdictionally or so forth.
Adding,
They might drop their tokens overseas at first and contend or pretend that it’s going to take six months before they come back to the U.S.
Gensler emphasized:
But at the core, these tokens are securities because there’s a group in the middle, and the public is anticipating profits based on that group.
Crypto Lawyers Clap Backs At Gensler’s Claims
Following Chairman Gensler’s claims, several well-known crypto lawyers and industry members have rebuffed his statements, Cointelegraph reports.
tweet, an attorney and policy lead at the crypto advocacy group the Blockchain Association, Jake Chervinsky, argued that Gensler’s “opinion is not the law.”
Chair Gensler may have prejudged that every digital asset aside from bitcoin is a security, but his opinion is not the law. The SEC lacks authority to regulate any of them until and unless it proves its case in court. For each asset, every single one, individually, one at a time.
— Jake Chervinsky (@jchervinsky) February 26, 2023
Logan Bolinger also stated in a tweet “that Gensler’s opinions on what is or isn’t a security are not legally dispositive.” He added, “Judges – not SEC chairs – ultimately determine what the law means and how it applies.”
Friendly reminder that Gensler’s opinions on what is or isn’t a security are not legally dispositive.
In this country, judges - not SEC chairs - ultimately determine what the law means and how it applies.
Doesn’t mean his thoughts are irrelevant. They’re just not dispositive.
— Logan Bolinger (@TheWhyOfFI) February 26, 2023
