SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, one of those who approved spot Bitcoin ETFs in January, said that this approval did not mean that they approved Bitcoin itself.
At this point, the SEC Chairman, who did not change his ideas about BTC, joined Bloomberg TV yesterday and made important statements about Bitcoin, Ethereum ETFs and cryptocurrencies.
First of all, Gensler said that investors should be careful due to the volatile movements in Bitcoin in recent days, and reiterated once again that cryptocurrencies are speculative assets.
“Bitcoin is a highly speculative asset class. You can understand this when you look at Bitcoin's volatility over the last few days.
“I grew up loving roller coasters… but as investors you really have to be aware that BTC is highly speculative and investing in BTC is kind of a roller coaster ride on volatile assets.”
“I Will Not Comment on Ethereum!”
While the SEC, under Gary Gensler, has long held the view that Bitcoin is a commodity rather than a security, Gensler refrained from commenting on the status of Ethereum in his statements yesterday.
When asked by Bloomberg hosts whether the SEC considers Ethereum a security, Gensler said he would “defer that ETH question.”
“I will not answer the question now about whether the SEC considers Ethereum a security or a commodity. I will postpone the answer to the question.
Because we have applications ahead of us. I will not comment.
“Furthermore, the issue of whether a token is a security or a commodity relates to the facts and circumstances of whether the public investing in the relevant token expects a profit based on the efforts of others.”
Gensler recently said that there are up to 20,000 crypto tokens, and investors invest because they trust the efforts of a group of entrepreneurs behind each project, and therefore most of their tokens can be considered securities.
The SEC and its chairman are known for their hardline stance against cryptocurrencies and their view that most tokens are securities that should be regulated by the SEC. However, Bitcoin remains the only asset approved as a commodity by the SEC and its chairman.
*This is not investment advice.