The greatest uncertainty over cryptocurrencies and altcoins revolves around the question of which is a security or not.
If you ask the crypto industry SEC to be more open and guide them on this matter, the SEC states that the laws are very clear and the assessment should be made accordingly.
The head of the SEC, who gave his testimony in Congress in the past days, also infuriated the Senators with his contradictory statements and could not use clear statements about which altcoins are securities and which are not. Expressing that the laws are quite clear on this issue, the SEC chairman asked, “Is Ethereum a security?” The fact that he could not give a clear answer to his question was the biggest indication that he was contradicting himself.
The latest move on this issue came from Coinbase, and Coinbase filed a lawsuit asking the SEC to be forced to be clearer.
While the debate continues on whether cryptocurrencies are securities or not, the statements made by SEC chairman Gary Gensler in a lecture at MIT in 2018 came to the fore again.
Claiming that many cryptocurrencies and altcoins are securities today, Gensler tells his students the opposite in his 2018 “Blockchain and Money” course at MIT.
“3/4 of Cryptocurrencies Are Not Securities”
“So we already know that 3/4 of the cryptocurrency market in the US and many other jurisdictions are not ICOs or what could be called securities. In fact, the Howey detection tracked in places like the US, Canada, and Taiwan 3/4 of the market is securities. It shows that there are non-assets. It’s just a commodity or cash crypto.”
While the reason for Gensler’s sharp turn after he became SEC president is curious, it seems that the “not clear enough” criticisms directed at the SEC are not unjustified. The contradictory statements of the SEC chairman seem to indicate that he is not fully convinced that the majority of cryptocurrencies are securities.