The crypto community had thought Gensler’s appointment was good for the industry, but he has been very critical of cryptocurrencies
The chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, told The Washington Post in a live interview that he doesn’t see the cryptocurrency market lasting long. Gensler said cryptocurrencies are highly speculative assets that have nothing to back them up.
The cryptocurrency community was excited when Gensler was appointed as the chairman of the regulatory agency. Many believed that the US SEC would finally approve a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) after many years of rejection.
However, that hasn’t been the case so far, with Gensler pushing for a regulation of the broader cryptocurrency sector. During the interview, Gensler said the value of crypto assets could go down massively, and they could also increase hugely.
Gensler called cryptocurrencies a highly speculative asset class with nothing standing behind them unless someone else is willing to pay for them. The SEC chair added that it is crucial that cryptocurrency innovation doesn’t undermine the stability of the financial system.
He added that he thinks it is best to bring cryptocurrencies into the public policy framework and ensure that regulators address important public policy goals. Gensler said the SEC has a lot of authority when it comes to cryptocurrency tokens that have the features of an investment contract.
The SEC chair said it is highly likely that crypto lending platforms have thousands of tokens, and some of them are securities. Lending and trading platforms that make these tokens available will be in trouble with the SEC since the tokens are not registered as securities with the regulator.
Gensler has been asking the United States Congress to grant the SEC more power and resources to increase its current oversight of the crypto space. The SEC chair wants to regulate the decentralised finance (DeFi) sector, stablecoins and cryptocurrency exchanges. He lamented that the activities of cryptocurrency exchanges are not controlled by any regulatory agency.