Gary Gensler, the newly appointed Securities & Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) Chair, finally breaks his silence and shared his viewpoint concerning Bitcoin. Also discusses how he wishes to utilize his office and the four Commissioners for regulation and supervising the entire crypto industry, including Bitcoin. Praised Bitcoin by stating it to be the scarce source of saving hard cash. Says that in order to ensure the safe utilization of cryptocurrencies, some sort of mechanism has to be put in place for the protection of the US crypto investors.
On Friday, 7 May 2021, SEC’s Chairman appeared in an interview on CNBC. During the interview, Gary Gensler discussed in detail Bitcoin and why it is unique. He was of the view that because it is a unique kind of asset therefore it requires an extra-ordinary regulatory and supervisory framework.
Gensler is thought to be the best man to ever join the SEC as he had a long professional career in teaching crypto and blockchain subjects. Before he became the Chairman of SEC, he was a professor in one of the globally acclaimed universities of the world namely MIT. His induction at SEC was not only appreciated by SEC’s Commissioners but also by the public, particularly the members of the crypto community. He was the pick of Biden and successfully obtained majority votes in the US Senate and took over the charge of SEC’s Chairman.
CNBC asked the Chairman to share his viewpoint regarding Bitcoin and how the authority wishes to deal with the leading coin. He started by stating that Bitcoin is not “security” but a “currency” that is contained in digitalized form. He then suggested that to him he would prefer naming crypto as “crypto tokens”. He argued that not every crypto is “currency” at all and there are some, which are in fact “securities”. Against “securities”, he suggested that SEC has ample authority of regulating them how it may please.
Gensler also revered the work his predecessor had done for bringing such securities into the regulatory framework. Thereafter, he diverted his rest of the talk towards Bitcoin. Firstly, he praised Bitcoin and claimed that in these times if someone is looking to secure hard cash, then Bitcoin is the best option. He also appreciated Bitcoin’s current market capitalization and noticed that it is remarkably reaching over US$ 2 Trillion.
However, he advised that he would like to aim at a policy that would be in the best interest of Bitcoin and crypto investors. He noticed that currently there is no federally authorized authority that has the power to regulate the US crypto industry. He was of the opinion that immediate steps need to be taken to ensure that supervisory control is to be entrusted to already existing authority.
In the end, he said that under the auspices of Congress, he would like to introduce investors’ protection policy very soon.
